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E.NCiLAND'S AFOST ILLrSTlUctV S SOVKKKIG.X. 



A Thousand Years 
With Royalty 

A Story of the English Kings 



pL^ci 



By J. McN. JOHNSON 






Copyright 1913 
By J. McN. Johnson 



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Co mp poung ^on 

Jfelix ileslie Sof^nmn, 

tofjo^e eadp literarp itcnt, 

a^ eiJidenceti tsp ince^^ant anti 

innumeratile que^sftion^, forccti me 

to become, ^ujjerficiaUp, 

conber^ant toitt) Cngli^l^ Iji^torp, 

3 tietiicate tljia ^implt 

comjjilation. 



PREFACE 

This while my notion's ta'n a sklent, 
To try my fate in guid black prent, 
But still the mair I'm that way bent. 

Something cries "Hoolie! 
I red you, honest man, tak tent. 

You'll shaw your folly." — Burns. 

I remember once when a boy, I asked the late James 
Davis, an old-time schoolmaster, why it was that an author 
wrote a preface to his book? His answer was that usually 
the poor man discovered that the book needed an apology. 

This simple compilation is admittedly without intrinsic 
merit. It had its inception in notes that I had taken some 
years ago, when assisting my own children in their history 
lessons. My idea at the time was to induce a personal 
interest in the king of the time the lesson referred to, and 
thus render less irksome the task directly in hand. 

Who is it that does not know something of the barren 
desert that must be traversed before a single blossom of 
beauty is found in the field of history so rich in luscious 
browse after it is reached? 

If I shall help some young and impressionable mind over 
this fiowerless waste that has proven an impassable Sahara 
to so many bright young readers, I shall indeed be a fortu- 
nate man. If I fail in this particular, my effort will have 
proved an entire failure. But even then it is pleasant to 
think no real harm can have been done, for the labor has 
been a downright pleasure to me. 

J. McN. Johnson. 

Aberdeen, N. C, 

August I, 1913. 






It has been my purpose to write a story that may be 
read in a winter's night, embracing the forty-one sover- 
eigns that have ruled in England since the Norman Con- 
quest, and in their order of succession to give a short and 
concise description of each sovereign, such as would be 
likely to appeal to the minds of the young; but to round 
out my thousand years indicated in the caption above, it 
will be necessary for me to hark back about a century and 
a half — to be exact, one hundred and forty-six years 
before the Conquest — to find my starting point. 

If it were possible for us to go back to England in the 
year A. D. 912, just a thousand years ago, we should 
find that King Alfred the Great had been dead eleven 
years, and that his son was king, 

EDWARD THE ELDER. 

This King's sovereignty extended only over the southern 
part of England, while all the northern part was under the 
control of the Danes. 

In those days the EngHsh people were too often ruled 
in their actions by superstition, and King Edward the Elder 
was not greater nor wiser than his times. He had married 
a daughter of a peasant named Atheling, for the principal 
reason, it is said, that this young woman had had a dream 
that from her body there proceeded a great Moon that gave 
wondrous light to all England; and the people believed 



a CI)ou0anD geat0 mitb Eopaltp* 

that this dream foretold that the dreamer should become 
the mother of great kings. 

In due time the Wondrous Light appeared in the form 
of a Httle boy; and probably because of this prophetic 
dream, and because he was the grandson of the great 
Alfred, but more than all else, because he was directly 
related to the common people, he was idolized, feted, and 
petted, and looked to as the Savior of England, while the 
king, though his reign was a prosperous one, found himself 
beholding his people waiting for the accession of the young 
prince with a complacency that must have aroused the jeal- 
ousy of a less noble nature. 

We know there was nothing in the dream; but it is sure 
that royalty gained one great advantage from this marriage, 
which was to endear the kings to their subjects; for we are 
told that for two hundred and fifty years, the common 
people, during a contest for the throne, invariably sided 
with the contestant that boasted the Atheling blood, and 
fondly called him "The Athehng." 

Edward the Elder, after reigning twenty-four years, died 
in the year 925 ; for his reign began with the death of 
Alfred the Great in 90 1 , and his son, the promised Won- 
drous Light, was crowned, as 

ATHELSTANE. 

This king, from the circumstance of his birth, as related 
above, was exceedingly popular, and under their trusted 
leader, the English people enjoyed a prestige and prosperity 
never before known. But after a reign of fifteen years, 
Athelstane died in the year 940, and was succeeded by his 
young brother, 

6 



^ Cf)ou0anD ^eat0 mith Bo^altp* 



EDMUND, The Atheling. 

Edmimd was the first of the Six Boy Kings. But, after 
a reign of six years, Edmund was murdered by an outlaw 
in his own banqueting hall, and was succeeded by his 
brother, 

EDRED. 

This was the second of the Six Boy Kings. This king, 
like all the other boy kings, was hopelessly dominated by 
Saint Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury, who, by the way, 
is not the only juggling rascal that has come to be called 
Saint. Edred reigned nine years, and died in the year 
955, and was succeeded by his nephew, a young son of 
Edmund, as, 

EDWY, The Fair. 

So called because of his distinct Saxon features. This 
boy king's reign was of only three years' duration. He 
died in 958, and was succeeded by 

EDGAR, The Peaceful. 

This boy king was a brother of Edwy. While he was 
entirely dominated by Saint Dunstan and the other monks, 
we are told that he united the two kingdoms, Northumbria 
and Mercia, and during his whole reign there was no 
breath of war. Edgar reigned seventeen years, and died 
in the year 975, and was succeeded by his son, 

EDWARD, The Martyr. 

The reign of this king was terminated in 978, when 
Edward was treacherously murdered by order of his step- 



a Cf)ou0anD ^ear0 mitfi Eogalt^* 



mother, the wicked Elfrida. He was succeeded by his 
half-brother, a son of the murderess, whose name was 

ETHELRED, The Unready. 

It is said that the best thing this king did was to oust 
Saint Dunstan from authority; and his surname. Unready, 
was given him by Dunstan, in derision. The word had a 
somewhat different signification than that we now attach 
to it. We understand Unready to mean not prepared, or 
not prompt, but as applied to King Ethelred, it indicated 
that he was without an adviser, from the old Saxon word 
rede, advice. In other words, the king dispensed with the 
services of the Abbot of Glastonbury, and depended on 
his own judgment. For this we have only admiration; 
but in many ways this king was careless of the rights of his 
subjects, and Mr. Dickens says that when he died after 
thirty-nine years of misrule, he did as good a deed as he 
ever did in all his life. 

King Ethelred depended largely on marriage alliances 
with his possible enemies, to insure a peaceful reign. He 
gave his sisters in marriage v/ith the potentates of continental 
Europe, and himself married the princess Emma, a daughter 
of Duke Richard of Normandy; but the old enemy, the 
Dane, was not appeased, and was a constant menace to 
England during Ethelred's reign. This king died in the 
year 1016, and there was an immediate scramble for the 
throne, lest the Dane should seize upon it. 

Ethelred's eldest son, hereafter to be known as Edward, 
The Confessor, was in banishment, and a younger son was 
proclaimed king, as. 



a C})oii0a!tD gears mitb IRogaltp* 

EDMUND, Ironsides. 

But the few months of this Edmund's reign was a bloody 
struggle with the Danes, and the shameless Emma, Ed- 
mund's own mother, turned against her son, and married 
the Danish contestant for the throne. 

The importance of fixing the short reign of Edmund 
Ironsides in our minds lies in the fact that a great-grand- 
daughter of Edmund Ironsides married Henry I., a Nor- 
man king, thus again grafting the blood of Alfred the 
Great, and also the blood of the Athelings, into the royal 
line of Norman kings. 

After a compromise with the Danes, Edmund Ironsides 
reigned in London from April to November of the year 
1016, and died, it is thought by the hand of a traitor 
named Edric, and the whole of England was immediately 
seized by the Danes, and ruled by that king known in his- 
tory as, 

CANUTE, The Dane. 

This was Emma's second husband, and lifelong enemy 
of Eihelred, her first husband. This Danish king tried 
hard to ingratiate himself with the English people, and 
ruled with more moderation than was to be expected from 
one of his wolfish nature; but the people could not forgive 
the unnatural Emma, and stood at arm's length with the 
Danish king. 

Canute had an illegitimate son by a great, bold woman 
named Algiva of Northampton, and on the death of Canute 
in 1035, the Danes, with the assistance of those English 
who were wiUing to sacrifice nationahty to punish Emma, 
forced this illegitimate son of Canute into the kingly office, 
as, 

9 



a CI)ou0anD ^ear0 mUh Eopaltp, 

HAROLD, Harefoot. 

This election excluded the sons of Emma by both her 
husbands, that is to say, Edward and Alfred, sons of 
Ethelred, and Hardi Canute, son of Canute. Harold 
Harefoot banished Emma, and this is the only creditable 
act of his reign. He treacherously invited Edward and 
Alfred, sons of Ethelred, to return from banishment; but 
Edward saw the snare, and prudently retired, while Alfred, 
suspecting no guile, accepted the invitation, and was ruth- 
lessly murdered by the agents of Harold. Harold Hare- 
foot died in 1 040, and was succeeded by 

HARDI CANUTE. 

This king, half Dane and half Norman, but wholly 
Danish in his prejudices, was son of Canute and Emma; 
and it was a constant struggle during his short reign to up- 
hold the anti-Saxon party. But now the Saxon tide had 
turned, and the Danish influence, as well as the influence 
of Emma, was on the wane. So on the death of Hardi 
Canute in 1 043, the banished son of King Ethelred and 
this same Emma was recalled and crowned king of Eng- 
land, as, 

EDWARD, The Confessor. 

It has been said that Edward, on his accession to the 
throne, treated his unnatural mother with high disdain and 
scorn. But Edward the Confessor was a great and good 
king. For five hundred years after his death, when the 
English people petitioned against oppressive laws, they 
prayed that they be given back "The Good Laws of Ed- 
ward the Confessor." 

10 



a CI)ou0anD l^ear0 mith Eogaltp* 



Edward the Confessor married a daughter of the great 
Earl Godwine, and, despite his rehgious Hfe, which gained 
him the surname of Confessor, he has been accused of being 
unkind to this lady. Some historians beheve this queen 
was thrust upon him by her father, for Godwine was as 
great and powerful in his day as was Warwick, the king- 
maker, during the Wars of the Roses. 

This King Edward was a first cousin to William, Duke 
of Normandy, afterwards the Conqueror, and the Duke 
claimed that Edward had promised him the crown of 
England. But the king's brother-in-law, Harold, son of 
Earl Godwine, was the choice of the English people; and 
what with the influence of the people, and the queen, and 
Harold himself, Edward was persuaded against his own 
judgment, to name Harold as his successor. He knew very 
well there would be a struggle with the Normans, and was 
convinced in his own mind that the English could not 
successfully resist the Norman arms; but he was weak and 
sick, and finally yielded to the pressure. 

Lord Tennyson, in his drama, "Harold," in language 
almost equal to Shakespeare's, depicts this struggle of the 
king, and gives us a clearer insight into the times than the 
historians give us. The oft-quoted lines, attributed to 
Edv/ard by Tennyson, are taken from this drama: 

"But heaven and earth are threads of the same loom. 
Play into one another, and weave the web 
That may confound thee yet." 

Edward the Confessor died in January, 1 066, and was 
succeeded by his brother-in-law, 

II 



a CJ)oii0aitti gear0 mith iRopaltp* 



HAROLD. 

This king is known in history as. Last of the Saxon 
Kings, Earl of the West Saxons, and best and bravest of 
the sons of the Great Earl Godwine. But Harold reigned 
only nine months. In October of the same year, Duke 
William came over from Normandy v/ith a great army, 
and, in the celebrated battle of Hastings, defeated the 
Enghsh under Harold, and Harold himself was slain by 
an arrow piercing his brain through his eye. The defeat 
of the English was turned into a rout, and William soon 
overran all England, putting down all opposition with an 
iron hand. This incident is known in history as The Nor- 
man Conquest. Duke William the Norman was crowned 
king of England on Christmas Day, 1 066, as 



L 

Better known as William the Conqueror, which he as- 
sumed as a surname. The blood of this man has flowed 
in the veins of every sovereign that has ruled in England 
since the battle of Hastings, with the single exception of 
Oliver Cromv/ell, the greatest ruler England ever saw. 

This conquest was awful, cruel, and thorough. The 
Conqueror devastated vast areas of fertile grounds to make 
hunting parks. He burned thousands of Enghsh homes, 
and turned out homeless and to starve as many thousands 
of English women and children, to pleasure his whims. He 
conquered everything, — but the human heart. When he 
came to die not a single human being in all the world loved 
him! What a commentary on earthly greatness! Mr. 
Dickens refers to the Conqueror's end thus: "Think of his 



a CI)ou0anD geat0 Witi^ Eogaltp* 



name. The Conqueror, and then consider how he lay in 
death! The moment he was dead, his physicians, priests 
and nobles, not knowing what contest for the throne might 
now take place, or what might happen in it, hastened away, 
each man for himself and his property; the mercenary 
servants of the court began to rob and plunder; the body 
of the king, in the indecent strife, was rolled from the bed 
and lay for hours on the ground. O Conqueror, of whom 
so many great names are proud now, of whom so many 
great names thought nothing then, it were better to have 
conquered one true heart than England!" 

But a strong man is rarely a mean man, and cruel as 
was the conquest of the Norman, much good resulted to 
the English nation from this change of dynasties. The 
great Survey, the Domesday book, the new tenure of land- 
holding, and a better judicial system than England had 
ever known, largely compensated the nation, if not the 
individual, for the high-handed methods of the Conqueror 
in bringing the English people under the Norman yoke. 

In the year 1087, William the Conqueror died, and was 
succeeded by his second son, who reigned over England as, 

WILLIAM 11. 

This king was surnamed Rufus, which means red. and 
many historians call him the red king. He ruled with great 
harshness and extreme selfishness for thirteen years, and was 
killed by an arrow-shot in the "New Forest," — that very 
forest taken from the common people by his father with 
such violence. It was never known certainly whether 
William II. was murdered, or accidentally shot by his 

13 



a C|)ou0anD gears mitb Eogaltp* 



companion in the chase, whose name was Tyrrell; but the 
common people firmly believed it to be an act of divine 
retribution. 

It was during this reign that the first crusade occurred. 
Many of the greatest gentlemen in England marched to the 
Far East on this ill-advised enterprise, and never returned 
again; and on account of the harsh treatment of the Saxon 
nobles by the Normans, many of their young men left 
England and joined the Greek armies. 

Sir Walter Scott's "Quentin Durward" gives us an in- 
teresting account both of the crusade and the emigration of 
the young Saxon nobles. 

It was in the year 1 1 00 WilHam Rufus was killed, and 
as he died without issue, and his elder brother Robert was 
engaged in the crusade, he was succeeded by his younger 
brother, who virtually usurped the throne, and reigned as 

HENRY I. 

On account of Henry's proficiency in the learning of his 
time, the Normans had given him the surname of Beau- 
clerk, which the English translated into Fine Scholar. 

William the Conqueror, in his last will, bequeathed 
Normandy to his eldest son Robert, and England to 
WiHiam, while to Henry he gave the sum of five thousand 
pounds in money. This sum represented much greater 
wealth then than it does now, but it was so infinitely smaller 
than the portions given to Robert and William, privileged 
friends of the Conqueror, we are told, remonstrated against 
this treatment of the accomplished Henry; but the Con- 

14 



a CI)ou0anD ^eat0 mitb Eopaltp* 

queror knew his man. He knowingly replied: "Never 
mind, Henry will get it all in the end." And he did. 
When Henry I. died, he was king of England, and of 
Normandy, and had his five thousand pounds to boot. 

There is a beautiful love story connected with this king, 
and its results have been far reaching in their consequences. 
You will recall that fifty-five years before the accession of 
Henry I. to the throne, we called attention to Edmund 
Ironsides, a Saxon king whose great-granddaughter married 
a Norman king. Now we have come to that king. Henry 
married Edith, a daughter of King Malcolm, of Scotland, 
and who was a novice in the convent at Romsey. Edith's 
mother was Margaret, a granddaughter of Edmund Iron- 
sides. 

We are told that Henry rode up to the convent gate at 
Romsey, and, seeing Edith the novice in all her beauty, 
asked her to be the queen of England. Edith's aunt was 
the Abbess of the convent, and used all her authority and 
powers of persuasion to induce Edith to refuse the offer; 
but to no purpose. Edith had not taken the vow, and the 
Archbishop Anselm absolved her from the vows other 
people had taken for her, and performed the marriage 
ceremony. Palgrave has written a beautiful little poem on 
this incident, one stanza of which follows: 

"Then love smiled true on Henry's face, 

And Anselm joined the hands 
That in one race two races bound. 

By everlasting bands. 
So love is Lord, and Alfred's blood 

Returns the land to sway; 
And all her joyous maidens join 

In their soft roundelay." 

15 



^ C!)ou0anD gear0 mitb Eopaltp* 



So it came about that Great Alfred's Saxon blood again 
flowed in the veins of English royalty, and the blended 
blood of Norman and Saxon became the dominating strain 
of the rulers of England. 

Edith, on her marriage with Henry I., changed her name 
to Matilda, in compliment to Henry's mother. Her popu- 
larity was immense, and went far toward making the Britons 
forget that their king was an alien. 

Henry I.'s eldest daughter, also named Matilda, married 
Jeffrey of Anjou, a fact I mention to show the Hne through 
which after-kings held the Enghsh crown. 

This King Henry was much of the time at war with the 
states of continental Europe, and he was on one of these 
excursions when his beloved queen died. He returned 
saddened and almost heartbroken, and began to centre all 
his hopes in his young son William, whom the common 
people affectionately called ''The Atheling.'' But now 
came the crowning sorrow. This son and his young sister 
were drowned when the White Ship struck on a rock and 
went to pieces while crossing the English Channel, engulfing 
all on board, with but a single survivor. 

On hearing of this catastrophe, it is said Henry fell 
down in a swoon, and, though he lived many years there- 
after, was never again known to smile. 

On this tragedy Mrs. Hemans has written a touching 
poem, a stanza of which I here reproduce: 

"The bark that held the prince went down, 

The sweeping waves rolled on, 
And what was England's glorious crown 

To him that wept a son? 
He lived, for life may long be borne 

Ere sorrow break its chain: 
Why comes not death to those who mourne? 

He never smiled again." 

16 



a: C|)ou0anD gear0 mith Eopaltp* 



After this tragedy Henry's only child was Matilda, the 
wife of Jeffrey of Anjou, and Henry attempted to settle 
the succession on her. England had never been ruled by a 
woman; indeed, the Salic Law, introduced into England by 
Wilham, The Conqueror, declared that a woman was not 
capable of inheriting the crown, nor of transmitting the 
inheritance to her descendants, and Henry did not venture 
to order his subjects to do her reverence as a queen, but 
ordered that Matilda be recognized as ''Lady of England 
and Normand'y," by virtue of a sort of an amendment to 
the Salic Law, and this was done without question. Even 
Stephen, a son of Henry's sister, swore fealty to Matilda. 
So with his mind set at rest as to the succession, Henry L 
in the year II 35, was gathered to his fathers; and Matilda 
came over to England to assume her dignities. To her 
astonishment the Enghsh people said, "Nay, Madam, 
England must be ruled by a king. The Salic Law is still 
in force." She was surrounded by her friends and parti- 
sans, but it was clear to see that a majority of the ruling 
class was bent on crowning that same Stephen that had 
sworn fealty to Matilda, and he was crowned king of 
England as, 

STEPHEN, OF Blois. 

Then for seventeen long years there was anarchy, and 
the nation was torn with civil war. Matilda was especially 
strong in Scotland, because her mother was a daughter of 
the Scottish king. She was also much beloved by the 
common people of England, who were determined that the 
blood of the Athelings should not again be expelled from 

17 



^ Cf)oii0anD ^ears mitb Hopaltp* 

the royal seat; while the ruHng classes were as stubborn 
in their determination not to be ruled by a woman. (Poor, 
blinded creatures; every one of them was ruled by a woman 
at home ! ) At one time Matilda's forces actually captured 
Stephen, threw him into prison, and crowned Matilda; but 
this was for only a few days, and Matilda is not accounted 
a sovereign in the catalogue of English kings. 

At last, in 1 153, the Salic Law was so far abrogated 
as to allow a woman to transmit the inheritance of the 
crown, and a compromise was agreed upon, by the terms 
of which Stephen was to retain the crown during his natural 
life, but he should be succeeded by Matilda's son; an 
agreement that secured to each party all that was contended 
for, for Matilda's son was all that could be desired in 
manly and kingly bearing, and was a descendant of the 
Athelings, and of Alfred the Great. 

The next year after the compromise, that is in the year 
1154, Stephen died, and it appears that everybody was 
glad of it. With Stephen passed the line of Norman kings. 
He was succeeded by 

HENRY II. 

This king is known as Henry of Anjou, and was a 
grandson of Henry I. and Edith, the novice. He was the 
first of the line of Plantagenets. 

The name Plantagenet signifies Broom, and was ac- 
quired by this great family during the wars of the crusades, 
when a leading warrior adopted a sprig of broom as his 
badge, so that he might be known by his own men during 
the confusion of battle. This warrior was bold and power- 

18 



a Cf)ou0anD ^eat0 Witb Eopaltp* 



ful, and his success in battle with the Turks gave him great 
popularity, and the war cry, "Plante de genet" became a 
synonym of victory; hence it was adopted as the surname 
of the warrior's family. 

The royal sceptre remained with the house of Plantag- 
enet through a line of fourteen kings, including three kings 
of the House of Lancaster and three of the House of York, 
ending with the death of Richard III. in 1485, of which 
we shall hear later in this history. 

Henry II. was a tyrant, but tyranny is better than 
anarchy. Besides, he was of Saxon stock, and that made 
a great difference; for what might be intolerable tyranny 
of one man, might be almost unobjectionable, or even 
admirable, in some other man (so entirely are we ruled by 
prejudice) ; and because the English people had made up 
their minds to /I'^e their king, they greatly prospered under 
Henry II. 

Henry inherited large domains on the continent: to these 
he added still larger by his marriage with Eleanor, the 
divorced wife of Louis the Young. So, when he came 
to the throne of England, his power was formidable. But 
he frittered it away in quarrels with his sons, and with the 
clergy. Perhaps the most notable event of this reign was 
the murder of Henry's Archbishop, Thomas a Becket, 
whose murderers believed they were acting under orders 
of the king. 

From the days of the Roman Empire, the clergy claimed 
the right to be tried by church courts for their crimes and 
not by the courts of law as other people. This privilege 
is referred to in our old lav/ books as "Benefit of Clergy." 

19 



S Cf)ou0ant8 gear$ With Bopaltp* 



The practice had come to be so shamefully abused as to 
insure practical immunity from punishment by a priest that 
had committed a crime, no matter how glaring. This 
abuse Henry II. attempted to correct, and for this purpose 
he appointed his personal friend, Thomas a Becket, as 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and passed what is known in 
history as the Constitutions of Clarendon, which proposed 
to render priests amenable to the laws of the land for their 
misdeeds. 

But Becket turned against the king, and displayed more 
stubbornness than any other primate had ever shown before, 
and so exasperated the king that he denounced the Arch- 
bishop in language that induced four knights to go imme- 
diately and murder the object of the king's wrath. 

Mr. Dickens relates a very romantic story of the court- 
ship, love, and marriage of the parents of Thomas a 
Becket; but it is too long for this brief sketch, and I must 
refer my readers to Dickens' Child's History of England. 

It was this king that instituted trial by jury, and 
abolished the barbaric practice of trial by personal combat, 
which was nothing but forcing the parties to a law suit to 
fight each other, and it was supposed that the one that was 
in the right would beat his opponent. 

Henry II. reigned thirty-five years, and died in the year 
1 1 89, when he was at war with all four of his sons, and 
was succeeded by his eldest son, as, 

RICHARD I. 

This king is better known as Richard Coeur de Leon, 
or Richard the Lion-Hearted, from his intrepid fighting 

20 



a Ci)ou0anD ^eat0 Witb Eogaltp* 



with the Turks in the wars of the crusades. But there was 
an interval of a few months between Henry's death and 
Richard's coronation, during which time the queen mother, 
Eleanor, exercised acts of administration. One notable 
act of hers was the release of all the prisoners, "for the 
good of Henry's soul, inasmuch as she had learnt, in her 
own personal experience, that confinement is distasteful to 
mankind." 

Richard I. was the very personification of mediaeval 
chivalry, and was greatly beloved by his people. The 
historical novehsts have shed a halo of glory about him 
that the unbiased historians have been obHged to disturb, 
and such a man now would be classed as a foolish knight- 
errant. Under his administration the Jews were more 
cruelly treated than they are now under the Russian govern- 
ment. The historian, Charles Knight, says: "Under 
Henry II. the Jews had only been robbed; under Richard 
I. they were ruthlessly massacred." 

This Richard is known as the hero of the second and 
third crusades, and it was he, together with the king of 
France, that organized and managed the third crusade, and 
most of Richard's short reign was taken up in these eastern 
wars, while the administration of affairs in England was 
left with his brother John, called Lackland. It appears 
that the unpopularity of John at this time was due largely 
to the fact that he allowed no one to rob the Jews but him- 
self. Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe" is a fine portrayal of 
the times. Wamba, the jester, is made to refer to Richard 
as "Dickon of the Broom," and Isaac of York was the 
type of Jewish money-lender that clung to John for pro- 
tection from the populace, while he suffered John to rob 
him in return for this protection. 

21 



a Cf)ou0anD gears; With IRopaltp^ 

Richard I. died in the year 1 1 99, of an arrow shot re- 
ceived while besieging a castle, and it is claimed by one 
historian that nothing in his life shows so clearly the strange 
inconsistency of his nature as the manner of his death. 
After being the hero of the Second and Third Crusades, 
Richard was shot by a boy in an unworthy fight over a 
paltry treasure found in the field of this castle; and the 
castle being taken after Richard received his wound, he 
ordered every inhabitant in the stronghold, except one, to 
be hanged. The boy that shot him was to be spared and 
pardoned by direct order of Richard. It was this mixture 
of ferocity and magnanimity that made up the sum total of 
Richard Coeur de Leon. 

But the order was not respected, and after Richard was 
dead, the boy that aimed the arrow, whose name was 
Bertrand de Gurdun, was tortured to death in a manner 
too cruel to be related. 

Richard I. was succeeded by his brother, 

JOHN. 

Although John had proved a traitor to his royal brother, 
he was designated by Richard as his successor, which is 
another instance of that strange magnanimity referred 
to above, and in this case nothing could have been more 
unwise, for of all the kings of England, from Alfred the 
Great down to the present time, there is not one other so 
universally execrated and despised as this same John. 

The historian Miles says that Genghis Khan, after shed- 
ding more human blood than any other individual since the 

22 



a CJ)ou0anD ^ear0 mitb Eopaltp* 



dawn of history, ordered forty young maidens to be slain at 
the door of his tent the moment of his death, to minister unto 
him in the spirit world: The same historian says that 
Catherine de Medici instigated the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew to hide her guilt in the attempted assassination of a 
single man. We know from Holy Writ that Herod caused 
the ruthless murder of all the male infants of Bethlehem, to 
remove a possible but unknown rival: And Josephus says 
that this same monster, when he was about to die, attempted, 
by diabolical finesse, to gather all the most honored men in 
Judea into one vast building, that he might have them all 
slain, believing that his memory would be glorified by un- 
precedented renown as a destroyer of human life, and, as 
he said, that his soul might depart this life in good company. 
And it is said that he was balked in this horrible design 
only because his soldiery refused to perform the execution. 
But posterity has gone farther toward forgiving Genghis 
Khan, and Catherine de Medici, and Herod of Jewry, for 
these awful deeds of wickedness, than it has King John for 
his pure villainy. 

A religious writer of the times said: "Christ and His 
saints slept during the reign of John." A bolder writer of 
that period said: "Vile as hell itself is, it is yet defiled 
by the still viler presence of John." And Green, the his- 
torian, thinks posterity fully upholds this writer in his 
terrible arraignment. 

Yet it was under John, in the year 1215, that Magna 
Carta, the Great Charter, was first granted to the English 
people, the very foundation of English liberty. But John 
is due no credit for this concession. It was wrested from 

23 



a CfjousantJ J^ears mUb Eogaltp* 



him after years of desperate strife; and it was no sooner 
signed than he wished to abolish it, and actually obtained 
the sanction of the Pope to disclaim the act, as extorted 
under duress. So the war between him and his nobles was 
continued, and John died in the year 1216, still resisting 
Magna Carta. 

Hardy, the English antiquarian, has unearthed from the 
ancient archives of London, an order of King John, written 
at this time, which shows something of the spiteful nature 
of this royal monster. The order runs thus: 

"The king to all his baihffs and faithful people who may 
view these letters. Know ye, that the citizens of London 
in common have seditiously and deceitfully withdrawn them- 
selves from our service and fealty; and therefore we com- 
mand you that when any of their servants or chattels pass 
through your districts, ye do offer them all the reproaches 
in your power, even as ye would to our enemies; and in 
testimony hereof we send you these our letters patent." 

Upon the death of John, it was proposed to seat a 
Frenchman upon the English throne, and the barons actually 
invited Louis, a son of the French king Philip Augustus, 
to come over to England and assume the royal sceptre; 
but blood is thicker than water. In this instance it proved 
stronger than the terrible memory of the wickedness of 
King John. The nation bristled with patriotism too ardent 
to be resisted by the barons, and John's young son, a mere 
child, was crowned king, as 

HENRY III. 

This king's reign was the longest in English history, 
except Victoria's and George III.'s, and covered a period 
of fifty-six years. 

24 



a CIjousanD ^eat0 miti) Eopaltp* 



But for the nightmare-memory of his father's reign, the 
tyranny of Henry III. would have been intolerable; for 
this long, dreary reign was one continued struggle of the 
people for the recognition and enlargement of Magna 
Carta, and, as a result of this struggle, the common people 
began to have a voice in the councils of the nation, and 
the House of Commons came into existence. The people 
learned that the proper and successful way to redress 
grievances was not to fight the king, but to withhold sup- 
plies from him, and this they did by a simple appearing 
law, which reads as follows: 

"No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom, 
unless by the common council of our kingdom." 

This little law has proved the most effective curb to 
kingly tyranny that has ever been contrived by the law- 
makers in all time; and it simply means that the people 
alone ought to have the power to levy taxes. 

It was in the year 1220, while Henry III. was still a 
minor, that he commenced the rebuilding of Westminster 
Abbey, which had been the coronation church of the kings 
of England since the days of Harold, Last of the Saxon 
Kings, but which had fallen into decay and ruin. The 
Abbey was practically completed in the next reign; though 
it has been altered and beautified by many succeeding 
kings, especially by Henry VII. This famous structure 
is now more famous and celebrated than the KremHn of 
the Russians, or the Mosque of St. Sophia, or the 
Alhambra of the Moors, and is the resting place for the 
ashes of the kings as far back as Edward the Confessor. 
It was from this scene of magnificence in death that Wash- 

25 



ington Irving turned in sadness and said, "When I look 
upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies 
within me." 

Henry III. died in the year 1272, and was succeeded 
by his son, 

EDWARD I. 

You will recall that we have already spoken of three 
kings named Edward, — that is, Edward the Elder, 
Edward the Martyr, and Edward the Confessor; but 
Edward, son of Henry III., whose reign began in 1272, 
is known in English history as Edward I. They did not 
begin to designate the kings by Roman numerals till after 
the Norman Conquest, though nobody has ever explained 
(to me) just why. However, this is the first of the three 
Edwards we now have in direct succession. 

It was under this king that England attempted to sub- 
jugate Scotland, and Sir William Wallace came into the 
limelight as a warrior. Edward had this celebrated hero 
hanged, drawn and quartered, which act of barbarity has 
had the effect to immortalize Wallace as a patriot, and, 
in some parts of the world, at least, to brand Edward with 
infamy. The author of "The Scottish Chiefs" accuses 
Edward's young queen of falling desperately in love with 
Wallace; but the story seems to have no foundation in 
fact. This is a solitary instance where a woman will 
sometimes commit a meaner act than a man will. The 
vilest man I have ever seen would shrink from attributing 
infidelity to a young and virtuous lady, even though not 
the queen, as he would shrink from blasphemy; but here 

26 



a C|)ou0anD ^eat0 With Eopaltp* 



we have the authoress of a great and immensely popular 
book doing this very act, altogether without proof, or even 
suspicion, just to add emphasis to her partisan argument. 
I say this though my sympathies are with the Scots in that 
heroic struggle, and I am always ready to admit that 
women, as a rule, are infinitely better than men. 

Edward I., before his accession to the throne, went to 
the Holy Land on a crusade. He captured the City of 
Nazareth, and, in his zeal, so unlike our ideas of Christian 
charity, killed every Turk found in the town. This king 
was a man of violent temper, and was brutally cruel to all 
who opposed him, yet history accords him the reputation 
of being the first English king to rank as a statesman of 
high order; and some historians regard him as the founder 
of constitutional liberty in England; and it is certain that 
he is the first king to concede voluntarily the principles of 
Magna Carta. 

In the year 1 307, King Edward I. died, while on an 
invasion of Scotland, and it is said that he caused his son 
to kneel at his bedside and swear that his bones should be 
boiled clean in a caldron, and carried in front of the 
English army till Scotland should be subdued. But if 
that oath had been kept, the king's bones would still 
occupy their station of honor in the van of that august 
column whose banners never lose the sun's light; for Scot- 
land has never been subdued. 

Edward I. was succeeded by his son, 

EDWARD II. 

This king is referred to by more than one historian as 
"the despicable Edward II." It was he that the Bruce 

27 



a CI)ou0anD ^mt$ mitfi Hogaltp* 



overwhelmed at Bannockburn, the decisive battle that 
secured the independence of Scotland. This king had 
been committed to prison in his youth by his father, for 
misdemeanors, and as a man he was no improvement on 
his boyhood. He was not a cruel king, but was weak and 
faithless, and never gained the hearts of his subjects. 

Edward II. had a mania for dissolute favorites, and it 
seems that most of his troubles were directly due to this 
unwisdom. One of his foreign favorites, named Piers 
Gaveston, was in the habit of attaching contemptuous nick- 
names to the great and powerful lords, such epithets as, 
"The Black Dog," "The Old Hog," and "The Jew," 
which his master thought extremely funny and a high order 
of wit; but he drew down upon himself the hatred of a 
class so powerful that the king could not save his favorite, 
and he was judicially murdered by the outraged nobles. 

Famine and pestilence followed the great victories of 
Bruce over the English, and added to the general dis- 
content. Then as a cHmax to all the king's troubles, his 
queen, who was Isabella, daughter of Philip Le Bel, 
King of France, turned against her lord, went to France 
on a visit, and refused to return. She is credited by the 
historians with living a scandalous life in Paris with her 
English lover, Roger Mortimer; and when she did return 
to England, it was at the head of an army hostile to her 
husband. 

With Isabella was the king's son, a lad thirteen years 
old, who was made the tool of his designing mother, and 
all England rallied about this boy, and drove the king 
and his unpopular favorites from power. The favorites 

28 



a Ct)ou0anD gears With Eopaltp* 



were killed, and the king placed in prison in Kenilworth 
Castle; while the young kinglet was crowned, and 
Mortimer and the faithless queen were supreme in the 
State. 

Mortimer conceived the idea that he would be safer 
in his illicit intercourse with the queen if Edward were 
dead ; so he hired two human brutes to murder him in a 
manner so horrible that few historians have ventured to 
describe it; for there are limits imposed by decency that 
human nature itself refuses to pass, and beyond which 
even the truth must be suppressed. 

More than five hundred years after the death of 
Edward II., the correspondence that occurred between the 
king and queen at the time when she was living in Paris 
with Mortimer, her lover, came to Hght when the letters 
were found in the French archives, and revealed the royal 
"carbuncle" in all its hideousness. 

Edward II. was the first heir apparent to the throne 
to be called Prince of Wales, a title of honor that the 
eldest son of the kings enjoys to this day. The stubborn 
Welsh had claimed from time immemorial that they had 
the right to a king of true Welsh stock. The people of 
Wales were the remnant of the ancient Britons, and had 
never submitted to Saxon, Anglo-Saxon, nor Norman rule, 
and boasted through their poets that: 

"Since from the east hither Angles and Saxons came to 
land, — since o'er the broad seas mighty war-smiths sought 
Britain, the Welsh overcame the most bold this earth 
obtained." 

So it came about that Edward I., knowing of the 
universal objection to him as a ruler among the Welsh, 

29 



a C!)o«0anD ^eat0 mith i^o^altp* 



by what he thought a shrewd trick, promised the Welsh 
people that he would give them a prince who was a native 
of Wales. And to fulfill this promise (in his own way), 
sent the queen into Wales a short time before a child 
was to be born to her. In due time the prince was bom, 
and the king held the child up before a great concourse 
of people and proclaimed him Prince of Wales. The 
king had his "rooters" distributed among the people to 
shout for joy; but the Welsh looked on in sullen dis- 
approval, refusing to be placated by so sorry a ruse, and 
only became reconciled when a real king of Welsh blood 
succeeded to the throne, as we shall see in the accession 
of the House of Tudor more than two hundred years 
after the birth of Edward II. 

It remains to be stated that neither Queen Isabella, nor 
her guilty lover long enjoyed the prestige this revolution 
gained for them; for the young king soon learned that 
their scandalous conduct was bringing reproach on him 
and his court, and he had Mortimer arrested, tried for 
treason, condemned, and executed; while with more of 
justice than filial duty, he caused his mother to be placed 
under mild prison restraint for the remainder of her life. 

It was in the year 1327 that Edward II. died, and 
even before his death, but in the same year, he was 
succeeded by his son, a boy of thirteen years, as 

EDWARD III. 

This Edward was infinitely better than his father, and 
more successful than his grandfather, and his want of 
great ability was largely compensated for by his honesty 

30 



3 Ci)ou0anD ^ear0 With IRopaltp* 



and evident desire to please his people. After his death 
there was an attempt to have his name handed down in 
the history of England as Edward the Great; but the 
effort was abortive, and of all the long line of English 
kings Alfred alone is thus honored. 

Edward III. was the founder of the Order of the 
Garter, the most celebrated order of mediaeval chivalry, 
and the historian Green gives the following incident in 
connection with its origin: Edward III. gave a great 
tournament at Windsor, at which there were present many 
of the greatest lords and ladies of the land. During the 
exercises the Duchess of Salisbury lost her garter, which 
fell to the ground, much to the merriment of the spectators, 
and the lady's own chagrin and discomfiture. The king, 
seeing the embarrassment of the Duchess, gallantly stepped 
forward, took up the garter, and, handing it to its owner, 
said: '^Honi soil qui mal J) pense" that is. Evil he to him 
thai evil thinketh. This sentence was adopted as the motto 
of the Order of the Garter. 

The reign of Edward III. was filled with wars with 
Scotland and with France, and it was he that fought and 
won the celebrated battle of Crecy; but his wars with 
Scotland were not so successful. During this reign that 
terrible scourge, the Black Death, destroyed about one- 
third of the population of Europe. The historian Miles 
says that this was the greatest calamity that ever befell the 
human race. 

Edward III. reigned a full half century, his being the 
fourth longest reign in the catalogue of English kings. 
His eldest son, Edward, so well known as the Black 

31 



a CfiousanD ^eat0 mitb Eopaltp, 



Prince, so named from his black armor he wore, was the 
idol of the English people, and they fondly looked to 
him as their future king; but this prince died in 1376, 
and was buried in Canterbury, and his mailed effigy is to 
be seen there at this day. 

We are to remember Edward III. as the common 
ancestor of the rival Houses of York and Lancaster of 
whom we are to hear so much presently. It is not often 
that a line of facts can be more clearly and more briefly 
stated in verse than in prose; but Shakespeare has done 
this in the following lines: 

"Edward the third, my lords, had seven sons. 
First, Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales; 
The second, William of Hatfield, and the third, 
Lionel Duke of Clarence; next to whom 
V/as John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster; 
The fifth was Edmund Langley, Duke of York; 
The sixth was Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, 
William of Windsor was the seventh and last." 

Strange to say, the historian Lancaster ignores William 
of Hatfield, and refers to Lionel, Duke of Clarence, as 
the second son. 

Since the Black Prince had died before his father, it 
was feared by the people that on the death of Edward III., 
John of Gaunt, the most vigorous of all the sons of his 
father, but very unpopular (because he was foreign 
born, — he having been born in the city of Ghent, pro- 
nounced Gaunt by the common people), would seize the 
crown, and exclude the young son of the Black Prince. 
So when Edward III. died in the year 1377, and John of 

32 



a CJ)ou0and ^ear0 With Hlopaltp, 



Gaunt made no effort to supplant his brother's heir, but, 
on the contrary, assisted his nephew with all his splendid 
ability, there was great rejoicing, and the nickname. 
Gaunt, instead of a reproach, was worn by this great 
statesman to the end of his long and useful life as a title 
of honor, as: 

"Old John of Gaunt, lime-honored Lancaster." 

Edward III. was succeeded by his grandson, the infant 
son of the Black Prince, as 

RICHARD II. 

This king was but eleven years of age when he came 
to the throne, but, as the son of the popular idol, he was 
received in a burst of approbation. But as the old un- 
popularity of John of Gaunt began to disappear, the young 
king began to show his jealousy, and his own popularity 
waned, and it was but a few short years before he had 
completely alienated his people from him. 

Most historians describe Richard II. as a cruel, 
cowardly, and unjust prince; though there are some that 
give him a better name. It is true that he protected 
Wycklif, and encouraged Chaucer; but, as a whole, he 
was a miserable failure. Lord Lytton has said that there 
was not a coward in the Hne of the Plantagenet dynasty; 
but most historians regard this Richard II. something very 
like a coward, when you scratch through the outer cover- 
ing of "bluff." 

It is true, nevertheless, that under this king the House 
of Commons forged further towards the front than it had 

33 



a Cfjou0antJ f ear0 mith Eopaltg* 



ever before attained. This is true, however, because 
Richard II. was not a strong king to prevent it. It is the 
history of constitutional freedom in England that this 
principle always lost ground under strong kings, and gained 
under the weak, which is but another way of stating the 
truth that: 

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." 

Richard II. was deposed, and the historian Charles 
Knight facetiously says that this is the one great reform 
accomplished in this reign. 

It was during this reign that the seeds of the Wars of 
the Roses were sown, for, during Richard's minority, he 
was pulled and dragged around by his uncles, and the 
jealousies of these uncles were transmitted to their 
children, and they gained in momentum till they culminated 
in civil war. 

Richard had his uncle Gloucester beheaded; he 
banished Henry Bolingbroke, the beloved son of John of 
Gaunt. He did not dare to touch old John himself, now 
the most popular man in England, but the moment John of 
Gaunt was dead, Richard seized on all his fortune and 
confiscated it to his own use. 

Bolingbroke, hearing of his father's death, and of the 
king's act of robbery, boldly came back to England, and 
demanded his right to the title of Duke of Lancaster, and 
his father's fortune. Richard was in Ireland when Henry 
landed, and the people were thus emboldened to flock to 
Henry's standard; for the robbery of old John of Gaunt 
was more than they would stand for. 

34 



a Ci)ou0ant!i ^earg mitb Eopaltp, 



Richard came home from Ireland, to find himself 
deserted by commons, nobles, and Welsh. At first he 
showed such a bold front that men who had despised him 
half forgave him for the past. It is at this time that 
Shakespeare puts these high-sounding words in Richard's 
mouth : 

"Not all the water in the, rough, rude sea 
Can wash the balm off from an annointed king." 

Richard shut himself up in a castle with some half a 
dozen noblemen, and impotently railed at Henry, who was 
surrounded by an army of twenty thousand men. He 
expressed great surprise and indignation that Henry's 
messenger did not fall down on his knees to him, and he 
sent Henry a mandatory order to quit the realm and dis- 
perse his bands, or unconditionally surrender. 

Shakespeare quotes this message thus: 

"Tell Bolingbroke — for yond methinks he stands — 
That every stride he makes upon my land 
Is dangerous treason: he is come to open 
The purple te.stament of bleeding war; 
But ere the crown he looks for live in peace, 
Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons 
Shall ill become the flower of England's face, 
Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace 
To scarlet indignation, and bedew 
Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood." 

But it required but very little water to wash the balm 
off of Richard; and "the purple testament of bleeding 
war" remained closed. Within a few days after these 
brave words, he humbly crouched at the feet of Henry, 
Duke of Lancaster, resigned his crown, and declared that 

35 



a CfjouganD gears mitb Hopaltp* 



if he had the naming of his successor, he would, of all 
men, name Henry of Lancaster, called Bolingbroke. 

Shakespeare expresses the same thought in statelier 
phrase; he depicts the Duke of York coming to Henry as 
a messenger from Richard, and thus delivering himself: 

"Great Duke of Lancaster, I come to thee 
From plume-plucked Richard, who with willing soul 
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields 
To the possession of thy Royal hand. " 

Shakespeare's "Richard II." and "Henry IV." are 
wonderfully true to history, as are his "Henry VI." and 
"Richard III.," and these latter two tragedies taken "to- 
gether make the best history of the Wars of the Roses 
that we have. It is true, the events of decades are crowded 
into single acts, and highly colored for stage effect; but 
we get it all, as in no other work. 

When Richard II. was deposed, he was committed to 
prison at Pomfret, and his young queen was sent back to 
France whence she came, and she never saw her husband 
again. Richard's final fate is unknown. He was 
succeeded in 1 399 by 

HENRY IV. 

With the accession of Henry IV. the quarrel between 
the Houses of York and Lancaster became more bitter. 
The House of York had adopted the white rose as its 
badge, and the distinguishing insignia of the House of 
Lancaster was the red rose. The embers smouldered for 
half a century, and in 1450 burst into a raging flame, 

36 



a Ci)ou0anD gear0 mitb Eogaltp* 



which for thirty-five years thereafter continued with terrible 
vigor, and practically annihilated the nobility of England; 
and from the badges of the contending factions, these wars 
are known in history as The Wars of the Roses. 

Henry IV. was an usurper of the kingly office; but 
his usurpation was with the aid and consent of a vast 
majority of the English people. This king did many 
wicked and cruel acts, but one thing he did has shed 
lustre on his name for all time. He was the first Enghsh 
monarch to place under the ban pillage by his soldiery, 
and no king since his time has permitted it, except at the 
expense of his reputation. 

Here the temptation to wander off into Shakespeare's 
"Henry IV." is almost overwhelming. It is there we 
first meet Sir John Falstaff, Dame Quickly, The Boar's 
Head Tavern in Eastcheap, Hotspur, and a host of other 
celebrities of the fancy that are better known than real 
historic personages. An old writer, speaking of Henry 
IV., has said: "History, strictly so called, — the history 
derived from the Rolls and Statutes, — 'must pale its in- 
effectual fire' in the sunlight of the poet." 

But the blot on the fair name of Henry IV. is that he 
was the first persecutor of the Reformers, or rather the 
forerunners of the Reformers; for at this time the followers 
of Wyckhf were called Lollards. 

This king reigned fourteen years, and was succeeded 
upon his death, in the year 1413, by his wild and wayward 
son, the companion of Falstaff, the frequenter of East- 
cheap, as 

HENRY V. 

At the very outset of his reign, Henry V. dismissed his 
old associates with small pensions, and ordered them to 

37 



3 C!)ou0anD gears mith Hopaltp^ 



never come into his presence again; and he became at 
once a wise and strong king, whipped the French almost 
from the face of the earth, and raised England to first 
place among the nations of Europe. But Henry V.'s 
best history is the history of the great battle of Agincourt, 
where his army destroyed a French force ten times their 
number, and where the flower of the nobility of France 
perished. 

Yet this fearful sacrifice of human Hfe was all for 
naught but to satisfy false ambition, and had no object 
but to assert an indomitable will ; nor were there any 
permanent results of this destructive war, except the per- 
petuation of hatred between England and France. 

Knight's Popular History, quoting from the old historian 
Mackintosh, says: "Whatever admiration we may feel 
for the bravery, fortitude, and self-reliance of Henry V., 
we must rank him among the guilty possessors of kingly 
power; and make a large abatement from the vaunted 
generosity of one who 'lay in wait for the best opportunity 
of aggrandizing himself at the expense of his distracted 
neighbors; as if nations were only more numerous gangs 
of banditti, instead of being communities formed only for 
the observance and enforcement of justice.' " 

Like Tamerlane, Henry V. lives in history as the in- 
carnation of the malignant spirit of conquest. 

Sir Richard Whittington, London's most renov/ned Lord 
Mayor, flourished during this reign, and the story of his 
life, as boy and man, has been an inspiration to countless 
thousands of youth. What child has not heard: 

"Turn again Whittington, 
Thrice Lord Mayor of London." 

38 



a CI)ou0anD feats' mitb Eopaltp* 

Most historians cast doubt on the story of Dick 
Whittington and his famous cat; but it is significant that 
in the year 1862, workmen, while remodehng an old house 
at Gloucester that belonged to the Whittington family, 
found a stone of fifteenth century workmanship, on which 
appeared in bas-relief the figure of a boy nursing a cat in 
his arms. 

Henry V. died in 1422, and it seems that historians 
and poHtical economists are agreed that his death was a 
greater stroke of fortune for England than the great 
victories recorded in his reign; for he was fast developing 
a kind of strength that boded ill for English liberty. 

During this short reign the Lollards, the followers of 
Wycklif, were persecuted with extreme severity, and many 
suffered martyrdom. The last will and testament of this 
king is still preserved among the royal archives of Eng- 
land. Its last clause is a pitiful prayer, thus: 

"Jesu mercy and gramercy Ladie Marie help. R. H." 

This king was succeeded by his infant son, as 

HENRY VI. 

And now it was that the spirit of liberty had an oppor- 
tunity to get on its "feet" again; for Henry VI. was not 
only a mere baby when his father died, but he developed 
into a weak and insignificant man. His reign covered a 
period of thirty-nine years, and after his minority was 
passed he was under "petticoat" government. His queen, 
a daughter of the titular king of Naples, brought him no 

39 



dower, and for her he was obliged to give up much of 
England's valuable possessions on the continent. This 
strong-minded and unscrupulous queen was the real ruler 
of England, till her authority was wrested from her by the 
nobles. 

During this reign England lost most of her possessions 
in France; the brilliant conquests of Henry V. passing 
as most ill-gotten gains pass. It was in this reign that 
Joan of Arc suffered. O the pity of it! The historian 
Green tells us that as her spirit left her body, a common 
English soldier turned to a comrade and said: "W^e are 
lost: fve have burnt a Saint." 

This act of barbarity has probably brought more blushes 
of shame to English cheeks than any other one act ever 
perpetrated by English authority. 

In Francis Palgrave's "Visions of England," there is a 
beautiful little poem called Jeanne D'arc. It is not out of 
place to repeat the last stanza here: 

"Poor sweet maid of Domremy, 

In thine innocence secure, 
Heed not what men say of thee, 

The buffoon and his jest impure! 
Nor care if thy name, young martyr, 

Be the star of thy country's story: 
'Mid the white- robed host of the heavens 

Thou hast more than glory!" 

It was during this reign, in the year 1450, that the 
Wars of the Roses, that terrible struggle between the 
Houses of York and Lancaster, broke out into open 
violence, and the Earl of Warwick, known as the king- 

40 



a Ci)ou0anD ^ear0 mitb i^opaltp. 



maker, came into prominence. He took the side of the 
Yorkists against Henry VI., and after he had deposed 
Henry, and York offended him, he again set Henry on the 
throne. It is he that Queen Margaret refers to as: 

"Proud setter up and puller down of kings!" 

Henry VI. was really an incompetent, and he was 
deposed in the year 1462, and with him passed the House 
of Lancaster. He was succeeded by the representative 
of the House of York, in the person of 

EDWARD IV. 

We are now in the very heyday of the Wars of the 
Roses. Henry VI. was the last king of the House of 
Lancaster, and Edward IV. was the first of the House of 
York. 

We are to remember that the House of Lancaster sprang 
from John of Gaunt, who was the fourth son of Edward 
III., while the House of York had its origin in Edmund 
Langley, Duke of York, and fifth son of the same Edward. 
This statement, on its face, would appear to give the 
House of Lancaster the better right, and this is true if 
we consider the male line only; but the House of York 
had another card up its sleeve. The Salic Law had been 
repealed. The third son of Edward III., Lionel, Duke 
of Clarence, had an only daughter, and she intermarried 
with her cousin of York, and it was through this female 
line that the House of York claimed precedence over the 
descendants of John of Gaunt, the fourth son. This 
reasoning convinced the Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, 

41 



and won him over to the side of Edward IV., though he, 
himself, was more nearly related in blood to the House of 
Lancaster. 

One of the first acts of Edward IV. was to send War- 
wick as an ambassador to the King of France, to negotiate 
a marriage with the French king's sister. But while this 
negotiation was going on, Edward married Elizabeth 
Woodville, the widow of Lord Grey, an Enghsh lady; 
and it was she who introduced the name Elizabeth into the 
royal family of England, and we shall s'^.e later on that 
her daughter, also named Elizabeth, mairied King Henry 
VII., who was the grandfather of EHzabeth the Great 
Queen, — but I am anticipating. 

We are told that when Warwnck heard that Edward 
IV, had mocked him by marrying another woman, he 
swore vengeance against Edward, and came back to 
England as a friend to the deposed Henry VI. It was at 
this time that Warwick is quoted as saying: 

"I was the chief that raised him to the crown. 
And I'll be chief lo bring him down again: 
Not that I pity Henry's misery, 
But seek revenge on Edward's mockery." 

No king of the House of York ever reigned quietly in 
England. This Edward's reign was troubled and bloody, 
and no advance either in learning, or in the arts, is notice- 
able under him. 

It is matter of wonder to most people how it was 
possible, even in those days, for great families, like the 
Houses of York and Lancaster, to destroy each other, and 
not be called to account. This is explained by the fact 

42 



a C|)ousanD ^eat$ Witb Hopaltp* 



that the party in power had a ready instrument of torture 
always at hand, that waited the king's beck and will to 
bring its cruel engines into play, to crush truth and 
innocence with shameless affrontery. This instrument of 
torture n>as the Church! Some ten years ago, a high 
North Carohna official made the unguarded statement 
that, "The Church has always been on the side of human 
slavery." Our good people from mountain to sea, rose in 
their righteous indignation, and branded this official as a 
blasphemer. But if you would scan the list of those who 
were loudest in their condemnation, it is to be feared that 
but few students of history would be found among them. 

But the Reformation has changed all that, and such a 
charge against the Church of the present day would be 
unfair. 

Of all the preaching since that of the Apostle Peter, 
down to the present day, there has been no more con- 
vincing argument for the divinity of Jesus Christ than that 
His doctrines have survived the personnel of the Church 
in the Middle Ages. 

The Church was a favorite instrument of Edward IV. 
when he wished to put a great enemy out of the way; 
though this charge applies to Edward's predecessors 
probably with more justice than to him; for just at this 
time the nobility had so nearly all perished that the 
commons began to wield an influence not so easily con- 
trolled. 

It is wearisome to dwell upon the dreary, bloody annals 
of the York kings; hence we will hasten on to the 
description of Richard III., Edward's brother, the most 

43 



Z Ci)ou0anD ^eat0 With Eogaltp* 



wicked monster that has ever worn the crown of England, 
— for we must dispose of him no matter how disagreeable. 
Edward IV. died in 1 483, and was succeeded by his 
infant son, as 

EDWARD V. 

This child was titular king for the space of eleven 
weeks. He and his younger brother, Richard, were shut 
up in the tower by order of their uncle Richard, brother 
of the late king, and there ruthlessly murdered. Richard 
is said to have procured this foul murder, by the agency 
of one James Tyrrell, and Shakespeare credits Tyrrell with 
reporting the horrible crime thus: 

"The tyrannous and bloody deed is done, 
The most arch act of piteous massacre 
That ever yet this land was guilty of. 
Dighton and Forest, whom I did suborn 
To do this ruthless piece of butchery. 
Although they are flesh'd villams, bloody dogs, 
Melting with tenderness and kind compassion 
Wept like two children in their death's sad stories. 
'Lo, thus,' quoth Dighton, 'lay those tender babes': 
'Thus, thus,' quoth Forest, 'girding one another 
Within their innocent alabaster arms: 
Their lips were four red roses on a stalk. 
Which m their summer beauty kiss'd each other.' " 

As soon as the boys were dead, Richard seized the 
crown, and was acknowledged 

RICHARD III. 

This third and last of the York kings was a strong 
character, but he was a cruel and wicked monster. He 

44 



a Cf)ou0anD ^eat0 mitf) Eopaltp, 



seems to have gloried in his wickedness. He caused the 
murder of his brother Clarence, his own wife, and some 
half dozen others that were in his way to the throne, and 
last of all the two sons of his dead brother, and is quoted 
as boasting about it thus: 

"But then I sigh; and with a piece of scripture, 
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil: 
And thus I clothe my naked villainy 
With old odds and ends stolen out of holy writ 
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil." 

As soon as it was known that Richard had caused the 
murder of his two nephews, the whole nation rose in 
rebellion against Richard in a storm of horrified indigna- 
tion. The rebellion was headed by Henry Tudor, Earl 
of Richmond, who defeated the forces of Richard, and 
Richard himself was slain on Bosworth Field in 1485. 

In Shakespeare's tragedy, "Richard III.," we are given 
a highly tragic account of this battle, and especially of the 
camps of the opposing armies the night before the battle. 
We are shown Richard and Henry sleeping in their 
separate tents, while the ghosts of those Richard had 
murdered appear, and to the sleeping Richard they say: 

"Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow!" 

But the historians tell us that, on Bosworth Field, 
Richard exhibited bravery worthy of a better cause. He 
entered the battle feeling that his army was invincible; but 
all at once he was deserted and left to his fate. This is 
the time and place that Shakespeare represents Richard, 
after being unhorsed, as shouting: 

"A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" 
45 



But what he actually said and did, was to cry: 
"Treason, treason," and to rush madly up to the Earl of 
Richmond, when he fell while trying to cut Richmond from 
his horse. 

As the crown, bruised and soiled, rolled from Richard's 
head, it was taken up then and there, and placed on the 
head of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, with a great 
shout of: "Long Live King Henry!" This was 

HENRY VIL 

With King Richard III., passed the House of York, 
the Plantagenet dynasty, and the feudal system of 
England. 

It is only fair to say that if I now fail to give my young 
readers something of interest, it will be my own fault; for 
the history of the House of Tudor is the pith and kernel 
of English history. Both writers and readers are apt to 
dwell long and fondly on this period; for it is a relief to 
pass from the acrid recitals of the Plantagenets to the fertile 
story of the Tudors, rich and ripe in human interest. And 
though the Tudor line is deeply stained with blood, its spice 
and snap are preferred to the maudlin story of the House 
of Stuart, and the insipid annals of the House of Hanover. 

Henry VII. was the son of a Welsh nobleman, but his 
mother was a granddaughter of John of Gaunt, and he 
was the last living representative of the House of Lan- 
caster. At the suggestion of Henry's first Parliament, he 
married Elizabeth of York, a daughter of Edward IV., 
and she was the only living eligible of the House of York. 

46 



3 CJ)ou0anD ^ear0 mitb Eo^altp, 

The Wars of the Roses were at an end: The Red Rose 
and the White Rose were entwined in one wreath; while 
the Welsh were reconciled, and have remained loyal to 
the government from the accession of Henry VII. to the 
present day; and Wales has contributed its quota of 
great men to the British nation, including the present 
Chancellor, David Lloyd-George. 

ChampHn, the historian and cyclopedist, described Henry 
VII. thus: "He was a wise and prudent king, with a 
great knack at money-making, which was not always by 
fair means." It was this king that so materially beautified 
Westminster Abbey. The Chapel of Henry VII., so 
justly famous as an ornament to the great Abbey, was the 
work of this Henry. 

In the year 1502, Henry VII. 's daughter Margaret 
married James IV., King of Scotland, a fact to be remem- 
bered as the link connecting the House of Stuart to the 
royal line of England, and by which the Stuarts inherited 
the crown of England, after the failure of the Tudor line, 
which ended with Queen Elizabeth, just a hundred years 
after this Scottish marriage of Margaret. 

The most beautiful lyric in Palgrave's "Visions of Eng- 
land" is based on the subject of Margaret's marriage. I 
quote two stanzas of it: 

"Love who art above us all, 

Guard the treasure on her way, 
Flower of England, fair and tall. 

Maiden-wise, and maiden gay, 
As her northward path she goes; 
Daughter of the double rose. 

47 



a C!)ou0anD ^cat0 With laopaltp* 



Look with twofold grace on her. 

Who from twofold root has grown, 

Flower of York and Lancaster 
Now to grace another throne. 

Rose in Scotland's garden set, — 

Britain's only Margaret." 

It may be of interest to note here, that this Margaret's 
son has been immortalized by Sir Walter Scott as the 
James Fitzjames of "Lady of the Lake," — he that fought 
the sword duel with Roderick Dhu, at Coilantogle's Ford, 
where we are told: 

"111 fared it then with Rhoderick Dhu, 
That on the. ground his targe he threw, 
Whose brazen studs and tough bull hide. 
Had death so often dashed aside; 
For trained abroad his arms to wield, 
Fitz-James' blade was sword and shield." 

Margaret's second marriage was with Lord Angus the 
Douglas, and thus she was the grandmother of both Mary, 
Queen of Scots, and her husband. Lord Darnley, the 
parents of James L, who succeeded Queen Elizabeth. I 
have digressed into this ramification of the royal line to 
show the kinship of the Norman line to the House of 
Stuart. 

It was during the reign of Henry VII. that the great 
Columbus discovered America, under the auspices of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, king and queen of Spain; and 
Henry sent out the Cabots, John and Sebastian, father and 
son, the first discoverers of our continent of North America. 

Henry's reign was beset with impostors, claiming to be 
Dukes of York, representatives of the last reigning family, 

48 



a C!)ou0anD gears With Eopaltp* 



and many poor, simple people lost their lives by joining the 
fortunes of these impostors, against the king. 

It was Henry's custom, in punishing these rebellions, to 
hang the guilty parties on gallowses supposed to be suited 
to the culprit's station in life: that is to say, a rebel who 
occupied a high station in society would be hanged on a 
high gallows; while a common laborer would be hanged 
on a low scaffold. Speaking of this, Mr. Dickens quaintly 
says: "Hang high, hang low, hanging is very much the 
same to the person hanged." 

Henry VI I. 's eldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, 
was married at the age of fifteen, to Catherine of Aragon, 
a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, but Arthur 
died within a few months. Instead of returning to her 
parents, the young widow was retained in England as a 
widow, for six years, waiting for the second son of EngHsh 
royalty to arrive at the ripe and marriageable age of 
fifteen; at which time the king procured a dispensation 
from the Pope for Arthur's widow to marry young Henry, 
the brother of her first youthful bridegroom. This wedding 
was arranged, but not consummated till after the death 
of Henry VII. We shall see in the next reign what untold 
trouble was brought about by these child-marriages. 

In the year 1509, Henry VII. died, and was quietly 
succeeded by his son, who was the first sovereign to assume 
the royal office without any dispute of his title since the 
accession of Edward III., nearly two hundred years before. 
This new king was 

HENRY VIII. 

This is the king who, in playful mood, knighted that 
part of the beef that we still call Sirloin. 

49 



a C!)oii0an!i f eat0 mith Uo^lty. 



This reign is usually considered one of the most im- 
portant in all English history. But great as are the re- 
forms that have grown out of the reign of Henry VIII., 
not one is due to any virtue in the king himself. Most of 
these reforms came of changes Henry inaugurated for his 
own selfish purposes. He destroyed the power of the 
Pope in England only to make himself Pope. He broke 
up the great monasteries, that his coffers might be enriched 
with their spoils. He championed the Protestant cause, 
for the reason that the Catholic Church had laid him under 
an interdict. 

But for Henry's quarrel with the Pope, he would have 
most probably stamped out the Protestant cause, though, 
in doing so, he would have sacrificed tens of thousands of 
his subjects at the stake. 

Most of Henry VII I. 's time was taken up in marrying 
v/ives, and either divorcing them or cutting off their heads. 
His first wife, as we have seen, was Catherine of Aragon, 
his brother Arthur's widow. Pie married her at the age 
of eighteen, while she was his senior by a number of years. 
After Flenry had lived with Catherine fifteen years, he 
pretended that his conscience had "crept too close" to him, 
at the thought of having married the widow of his dead 
brother. (The idea of Henry VIII. having a conscience!) 
Shakespeare puts it in the mouth of the Earl of Surrey 
as saying, "The king's conscience has crept too close to 
another lady." This was doubtless true, for just at the 
time Henry began to feel these qualms of conscience, he 
also began to heap honors upon one of the queen's maids- 
in-waiting, the beautiful and vivacious daughter of Sir 
Thomas Boleyn, famous in history as Anne Boleyn. 

50 



a C|)ou0an^ ^ear0 With Eogaltp* 



The Pope refused his assent to Henry's proposal for a 
divorce from Catherine, and Henry defied the Pope, and 
put servile judges on the bench to do his hking. 

Still the divorce suit dragged on; for great as was 
Henry's power, not yet was all England willing to embrace 
this shameful injustice to Queen Catherine, to satisfy the 
king's evanescent fancj^ He dismissed his ministers, railed 
on the judges, and all the time paid assiduous court to 
Anne Boleyn. It was at this time, that Anne, who pre- 
tended great love for the queen and sorrow for her distress, 
is quoted by the poet as moralizing thus: 

"... Verily, 
I swear, 'tis better to be lowly born. 
And range with humble livers in content, 
Than to be perk'd up in a glistening grief, 
And wear a golden sorrow." 

And Anne is represented as delivering such fine speeches 
as this in commiseration of Queen Catherine's misfortune, 
while she, herself, was plotting to complete the queen's 
downfall. 

Henry's impatience at the slow process of the divorce 
court broke all bounds, and he secretly married Anne 
Boleyn six months before the decree of divorce was issued. 

At last the divorce was forthcoming, and Anne was 
crowned queen; and some three months later a daughter 
was born to her, whom they named Ehzabeth. 

Love that is not founded in respect and trust is usually 
short-lived. Henry's love for Anne Boleyn was not of 
this type, but partook more of the nature of animal lust; 
and, as was quite natural, was soon followed by satiety 
and neglect. 

51 



a C!)ou0anD gear0 With IRopaltp* 



After Henry had tired of his butterfly wife, we are told 
that weeks would pass without his once calling her to speak 
to him. Her sprightly temper and natural vivacity resented 
the king's cruel neglect, and she began to get "gay" with 
the young nobles about the court. All at once, and with- 
out a warning frown, Henry ordered Anne to her trial for 
infidelity. 

In the British museum there is to be seen a touching 
letter in Anne Boleyn's own handwriting, written to Henry 
by her while she was in the Tower awaiting her trial. In 
this letter, she stoutly maintains her innocence, and tells 
the king in splendid language, and with a spirit worthy of 
her illustrious daughter, that he never would have suspected 
her of a crime that had never entered her mind, but that he 
had become enamored of another woman. I would hke 
much to copy this great letter in full, but it is too long for 
the promised scope of my story. 

Anne was convicted, though without sufficient evidence, 
and her beautiful neck was severed on the block. 

Henry mourned the respectable period of two weeks 
after Anne's death, and married Jane Seymour. This 
wife gave Henry a son, while Catherine and Anne Boleyn 
had only given him a daughter each; so Jane Seymour had 
the good fortune to die a natural death. But most people 
think she would not have been so fortunate had she deferred 
the matter a little longer. 

Thomas Cromwell was at this time Henry's Prime 
Minister, and he persuaded the king that this time he 
should make a policy marriage, and to aid him in his argu- 
ment, Cromwell hired a clever artist to "doctor" up a 

52 



picture of Anne of Cleves, a great, fat German lady, and 
the artist did his doctoring so well that the king went into 
ecstasies over the beauty of the picture, and decided that 
he wanted the lady Anne for his fourth queen, and wanted 
her at once. So Henry sent an embassy with his proposal 
of marriage to Anne of Cleves, and instructed his agents 
that they were to bring the lady directly to London; and 
this was done without unnecessary delay. 

But when Henry saw the original of the delusive picture 
he went into another sort of ecstasy, and this time he swore 
vengeance on the head of Cromwell. It was only the 
threat of war with Germany that induced Henry to keep 
his contract and carry out the wedding agreement. 

So Henry VIII. married Anne of Cleves, and divorced 
Anne of Cleves, and ruined Thomas Cromwell, all in the 
year. This decree of divorce was easily obtained, for by 
this time the courts had become shamelessly servile to the 
will of the king. The decree naively recited that, "Either 
party was free to marry again" ; and this Henry proceeded 
to do at once. 

Queen number five was Catherine Howard. Henry 
lived with her fifteen months, and on several occasions 
publicly gave thanks for his domestic felicity. But then it 
came out that this Catherine, before her marriage with the 
king, had hved a scandalously unchaste life; so she was 
promptly sent to her death. 

By this time the great ladies began to be wary of this 
royal bait, and when Henry made an offer to an Italian 
princess, that lady thanked him for the compHment, but 
said she preferred to keep her head. After some casting 
about, Henry married a widow named Catherine Parr, and 
she outlived her lord. 

53 



^ C|ioti0anD gear0 With Eopalt^* 



Henry VIII. was the father of three children: Mary, 
daughter of Catherine of Aragon; Elizabeth, daughter of 
Anne Boleyn; and Edward, son of Jane Seymour. They 
all three held the sceptre of England, as shall directly 
hereafter appear. 

The rise, flourish, and fall of Henry's two celebrated 
prime ministers, the great Cardinal Woolsey, and later 
Thomas Cromwell, give us a study in human ambition, 
and emphasize the Bibhcal injunction: ^'Put not ^our 
trust in Princes." It is curious to know that Woolsey fell 
because of his opposition to Henry's marriage with Anne 
Boleyn; while Cromwell's fall was due to his advocacy 
of the marriage with Anne of Cleves. Woolsey recognizes 
the cause of his fall, when in his last interview with his 
friend and pupil, and his destined successor, he is repre- 
sented as saying in reference to Anne Boleyn: 

"There was the weight that pulled me down." 

It was just after Woolsey's arrest that Shakespeare gives 
that famous soliloquy of the fallen cardinal, which in 
verbal grandeur is second only to the soliloquy of Hamlet. 
In part it is as follows: 

"Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness! 
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth 
The lender leaves of hope; to-morrov/ blossoms, 
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him; 
The third day coirne.s a frost, a hilling frost, 
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely 
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, 
And then he falls, as I do." 

Then in that last interview with Cromwell, Woolsey 
advises his friend as follows: 

54 



"Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition: 
By this sin fell the angels; how can man, then. 
The image of his Maker, hope to win by it?" 

Green, the historian, says that as Woolsey's end was 
approaching, he was heard to say to the ofScer in whose 
custody he was: "And Master Knighton, had I but 
served God as dihgently as I served the king. He would ^ 
not have given me over in my gray hairs." Shakespeare 
places this scene in that last interview with Cromwell, and 
recites it thus: 

" . . . O Cromwell, Cromwell! 
Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, He would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies. " 

But Cromwell did not profit by the fallen Woolsey's 
advice: on the contrary, he climbed the ladder of ambition 
to a dizzy height, and fell with a crash more cruel than 
the fall of Woolsey. 

Henry VIII. was as r.early an absolute monarch as 
England ever knew. Under Woolsey, and then under 
Thomas Cromwell, the power of the people and Parlia- 
ment disappeared, and Henry's stubborn and cruel will 
became the law of the land. 

Those who wish to hear Henry VIII. soundly berated, 
I refer to Mr. Dickens, and I feel the utmost confidence 
that all their pent-up vindictiveness shall be satisfied. Yet 
strange to say, James Anthony Froude, a popular English 
historian of the Victorian era, lauded Henry VIII. to the 
skies. To my mind this only goes to prove that no event 
in history is so well established but that some writer will 
dispute it. 

55 



This strong, bold, and wicked monster died in the year 
1547, after afflicting England thirty-eight years, and he 
was succeeded by his only son, the child of Jane Seymour, 
as 

EDWARD VI. 

This young king was but nine years old when he came 
to the throne, and throughout his short reign he was wholly 
under the domination of his maternal uncles, the Seymours, 
and one of these uncles married Catherine Parr, the widow 
of the late king. The Seymours quarreled and fought 
among themselves, as to which uncle should have 
precedence in the councils of the royal closet. But most 
that either king or uncles did was to persecute Roman 
Catholics so cruelly that its reaction fell heavily upon the 
Protestants in the succeeding reign. 

There was an effort made to marry Edward to Mary, 
Queen of Scots, then a child of ten years, but her friends 
being Roman Catholics, regarded Edward as a wicked 
heretic, and nothing came of it; for, according to the 
dogmatic religion instilled into the mind of this child-queen, 
heresy was ten times over a greater crime than murder. 
England went to war with Scotland about it, because of 
wounded national pride; and a Scottish nobleman being 
captured by the English, was asked why they objected to 
the match, and his reply was: "O, no objection, none in 
the world, to the match, but only your manner of wooing." 

In the year 1553, Edward VI. died, at the age of 
fifteen, and there was an attempt to force the crown on a 
young lady known in history as the Lady Jane Grey, a 
Protestant cousin of Edward; but the attempt resulted 

56 



^ Cf)ou0anD pmt$ mitb iRopaltp* 



only in the cruel death of the Lady Jane, and many of her 
great friends; and the crown was given to Edward's elder 
sister, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, who became 
England's first queen, as 

MARY TUDOR. 

Mary was England's first female sovereign. She was a 
Roman Cathohc, and her accession greatly retarded the 
progress of the Reformation. This queen is known in 
history as Bloodi) Mary, in allusion to her bloody career 
in persecuting Protestants; but the historian Miles thinks 
this harsh description is not deserved, for while she did 
burn a few Protestants to death, and among them that 
prince of preachers, Hugh Lattimer, the number that 
suffered under her was much smaller than is generally be- 
lieved. Besides, that historian thinks these atrocities should 
be attributed to the times, and not to the queen herself. 
Anent this reason, one can't help speculating on how re- 
assuring it would be to know that all our crimes would be 
attributed to the times. Ridpath says that three hundred 
persons were burned at the stake during the five years of 
the queen's reign. It would be hard to invent a plausible 
excuse for such inhuman cruelty, and it is not often a 
historian attempts it. 

Mary married Philip II. of Spain, that king that is on 
record as never having laughed but once in all his life, 
and that was when he heard of the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew. Philip was himself a bigoted Catholic, 
and a devout believer in the Holy Inquisition, which he 

57 



a C!)ouganD ^ear0 mUb Eoplt^* 



attempted to introduce into England; but the frown of 
the nation was too ominous to be mistaken, and the scheme 
was abandoned. 

It ought to be said to Mary's credit that most of the 
time during which these three hundred Protestants were 
roasting, she herself was sick in body and mind, neglected 
by her husband, and was immured in the strictest seclusion, 
so it is hardly possible that she personally had knowledge 
of many of these murders. But that same instrument of 
torture, the Church, was given a free hand, and that 
answered quite as well for the purpose. 

Mary died childless in the year 1558. Ridpath says: 

"Nature had set its edict against the propagation of 
monsters." 

The revolting crimes committed in the name of the 
Roman Catholic religion, during this reign, badgered Eng- 
land into that intense Protestant nation it has been since 
the days of Mary Tudor. 

During this reign England lost the city of Calais, her 
last foothold in France; and Mary took this loss so 
grievously to heart, that she is said to have told her friends 
that after her death, if her body were opened, the word 
"Calais" would be found burnt into the surface of her 
heart. 

When the news of Mary's death reached Parliament, 
that august body gave way to the bad taste of indulging 
in a general buzz of satisfaction, interspersed with sup- 
pressed cries of "Long Live Queen Elizabeth." 

58 



a Cf)ou0anD ^ear0 Witb lEogalt^* 



ELIZABETH. 

As we have seen, Elizabeth was the only daughter of 
Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. This queen 
was a wonderful woman. It has been said that she had 
no religion, but was forced to espouse the Protestant cause 
for the obvious reason that the Roman Catholic Church 
disputed the validity of Henry's divorce from Catherine of 
Aragon, and as a necessary consequence, disputed the 
legality of his marriage with Anne Boleyn, which, of 
course, precluded Elizabeth's legitimacy. 

Elizabeth is known in history as the great queen, but in 
many respects she was not great. Mr. Dickens describes 
her as, "Red-headed, freckle-faced, and much given to 
hard swearing." I am frank to admit that anything Mr. 
Dickens said is usually worthy of consideration; for it is 
probably true that of the myriads of men that lived and 
died during the thousand years embraced in this story, not 
one wrought more effectively for the alleviation of human 
suffering, or added more to the sum total of human happi- 
ness, than did Charles Dickens. But as a proof of the 
fact that the ''dram of ea/e" is present with the greatest of 
mortal men, we here see the great master sneering at the 
color of a lady's hair! The truth is, with the single ex- 
ception of gray, that rich, golden color contemptuously 
called "red" is the most beautiful color of all shades for 
the hair of a lady. But it is pleasanter to think with Burns' 
omnamorous lines: 

"There's muckle love in raven locks, 
The flaxen ne'er grows yoden, 
There's kiss and hause me in the brown, 
And glory in the gode.n." 

59 



a C!)ou0anD geat0 mith Bopaltp* 



But the historian Green comes with a more serious 
charge and says: "In the profusion and recklessness of her 
lies, EHzabeth stood without a peer in Christendom." An- 
other historian tells us that once when one of her bishops 
had the hardihood to call on the queen and protest against 
the injustice of certain "reliefs" she had demanded of the 
clergy, Elizabeth rose in her majesty and replied: "Proud 
prelate! You pay in those reliefs, or, by God, I'll un- 
frock you!" It has well been said, "We can much forgive 
Elizabeth, the woman, for the sake of Elizabeth, the 
queen." The true greatness of Queen Elizabeth lay in her 
superb self-possession, and her ability to take the tide at 
the flood, and ride the crest of the wave. 

It is a matter of common knowledge that human thought 
moves in leaves; and in Elizabeth's time this thought-wave 
attained the proportions of a veritable billow, which, like 
all thought-waves, crystallized into great men, and in- 
tellectual vigor ran riot. It was this reign that produced 
Shakespeare, who, as a literary genius and depicter of 
human nature, beggared the past, and bankrupted the 
future: it was this reign that produced Drake, probably 
the greatest sea captain of all time; and Sir Francis Bacon, 
the inventor of our system of inductive philosophy; and 
Sir Walter Raleigh, universally known as the "Prince of 
Gentlemen." This reign produced hundreds of men, now 
unknown, but any one of v/hom would have come down to 
us in history as an intellectual giant, but for the immediate 
presence of greater. Ben Jonson would have been Shake- 
speare, but for the bard of Stratford-on-Avon. 

But it seems to be a universal law, — a protest of nature, 
as it were, — that all over-rapid growth produces excres- 

60 



a Ci)oii0anD ^ear0 Witb Eopaltp, 



cences that mar beauty and symmetry. This is true in the 
material world, as well as in the mental and spiritual 
development. There is no more perfect symmetry in all 
nature than that of the hand of a normal child, but the hand 
of a rapidly growing boy is often marred with unsightly 
warts. The brilliant valedictorian too often goes off at a 
tangent, while sturdy mediocrity marches steadily to the 
front. Piety is manhood's most glorious ornament, but the 
zealot is almost sure to bring reproach and ridicule on the 
worship he adores. 

The excrescence produced by the vigor of Elizabethan 
scholarship was that unnatural affectation of style, known 
as Euphuism, so named from its foremost disciple, a creation 
of the fancy, called Euphues. A popular writer of the 
times, named Lyly, wrote a book called "Euphues and His 
Anatomy of Wit," which gave the name to this style, which 
might be called. Gallantry gone to seed, courtly manners 
so stilted as to be ridiculous. Below, I quote a paragraph 
written by Sir Walter Scott, which he gave as an example 
of sixteenth century Euphuism: 

"Credit me, fairest lady, that such is the cunning of our 
English courtiers of the hodiernal strain, that as they have 
infinitely refined upon the plain and rusticial discourse of 
our fathers, which, as I may say, more beseemed the mouths 
of country roysterers in a May-game than that of courtly 
gallants in the gaUiards; so I hold it ineffably and unutter- 
ably impossible that those who may succeed us in that 
garden of wit and courtesy shall alter or amend it. Venus 
delighted but in the language of Mercury, Bucephalous 
will stoop to no one but Alexander, none can sound 
Apollo's harp but Orpheus." 

61 



^ C!)oii0ant3 ^ear0 mitb Hopalt^, 



Of course such foolishness as this would disgust the 
common sense of any people; and in England there was 
such a revulsion of feeling that Euphuism soon found its 
antithesis in the blunt and unmusical speech of the Puritans, 
and the beauties of Shakespeare were sunk in oblivion for 
nearly two centuries. 

We shall see that this vigorous thought-wave was suc- 
ceeded by a period of depression and stupidity in the next 
reign, only to revive in a religious wave of tremendous 
force and vigor, that crystallized in Oliver Cromwell, John 
Milton, and John Bunyan; but to revert to Elizabeth: 

Justice to the great queen demands that one other mark 
of true greatness be mentioned as possessed by Elizabeth 
to a degree that not only astonished the world of her day, 
but has excited the admiration of every generation since. 
The historj' of the world has shown that an outraged 
woman come into power is a dangerous proposition, and 
almost sure to display vindictive cruelty. With Queen 
Elizabeth this was not the case. Though her childhood 
and girlhood was one continuous insult and outrage, — 
branded as a bastard, disowned by her father, treated as a 
pariah by her brother Edward, hated and scorned by her 
sister Mary and all the Catholics of England, and all this 
time treated as a virtual prisoner by her harsh and unsympa- 
thetic guardian, or rather her custodian. Sir Henry Bene- 
fleld; then to be called directly from all this injustice and 
insult, to unlimited power, was enough to turn almost any 
head. 

But it has been stated that Elizabeth affected to forget 
her wrongs, and her revolution was accomplished without 

62 



a C!)ou0ans5 ^ear0 With Momlt^. 



the shedding of one drop of blood. Even when Sir Henry 
Benefield came fawning at the feet of his erstwhile ward, 
the queen, with dignity, informed him that when she should 
have some state prisoner that was to be treated with unusual 
severity, she might call for him as a tormentor; and curtly 
dismissed him. 

Queen Elizabeth never married. She was wont to say 
that she wedded her kingdom when she was crowned queen 
of England, and that she would bring no other husband 
over her people. But the historian Miles spitefully remarks 
that she did not say this till she was an old woman. It is 
pleasant to compare this churlish thrust with Shakespeare's 
gallant allusion, in those delightful lines in "Midsummer 
Night's Dream," where Oberon is represented as saying 
to Puck: 

"... Thou rememberesl 
Since once I sat upon a promontory 
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back 
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath 
That the rude sea grew civil at her song. 
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 
To hear the sea-maid's music. 

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not, 
Flying between the cold moon and earth, 
Cupid all armed: A certain aim he took 
At a fair vestal throned by the west, 
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from fiis bow. 
As it would pierce a hundred thousand hearts; 
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft 
Quenched in the chased beams of the watery moon, 
And the imperial voteress passed on. 
In maiden meditation, fancy-free." 



63 



a Cf)ou0anD geats mitb iRopaltp. 



Elizabeth reigned forty-five years, and died in the year 
1 603, and with her the Tudor Hne ended. Historians 
differ a httle about what EHzabeth did and said about 
choosing her successor. Dickens says that when the great 
queen was about to die, she charged her ministers to see 
that no rascaVs son filled her place when she was dead, but 
to see that her successor was the son of a king. And that 
when the ministers pressed her to name her choice, she 
replied: "Who should be but our cousin of Scotland?" 
meaning James Stuart, the King of the Scots. But Green 
says that the ministers asked Elizabeth if she willed that 
James should be her successor, and that she merely raised 
her hand to her head, which was interpreted as her assent. 

It was thought by the enemies of Elizabeth that remorse 
for having ordered the execution of James' mother, Mary, 
Queen of Scots, induced the dying queen to desire Mary's 
son as her successor, as a sort of restitution. But Elizabeth 
had, in the course of her long reign, become a sincere 
Protestant, and James was the nearest Protestant heir to 
the English throne, he being, as we have seen, a son of 
Mary, Queen of Scots, and her husband. Lord Darnley, 
both of whom were grandchildren of Margaret Tudor, 
who married James IV. of Scotland. 

Elizabeth's immense popularity was largely due to the 
destruction of the Spanish Armada. With that splendid 
victory for the British navy, patriotism fairly boiled over, 
and the universal adoration of the queen became a bhnd 
and unreasoning worship. 

The romantic stories of Queen Elizabeth's lovers are 
too long for this brief sketch, and I must refer my readers 

64 



a Cf)ou0anD ^ear0 mUb lEopaltp* 



to those intensely interesting love passages as they appear 
in Ehzabethan history. Sir WaUer Scott's "Kenilworth" 
gives an interesting and tragic account of Lord Leicester's 
aspiration to the queen's hand, and how, for this ambition, 
the beautiful Amy Robsart v^^as cruelly done to death. 
The book opens by quoting a touching poem of the olden 
time, called "Cumner Hall," directly referring to this 
tragedy. The first stanza is as follow^s: 

"The dews of summer night did fall. 
The moon, sweet regent of the sky, 
Silvered the walls of Cumner Hall, 
And many an oak that grew thereby." 

Even novv^, after the lapse of more than three hundred 
years, it is rarely, if ever, disputed that England's most 
illustrious sovereign passed away in the good year 1 603. 

Queen Elizabeth was succeeded by 

JAMES L 

The first sovereign of the ill-starred House of Stuart 
to sit on the throne of England. He was James VI. of 
Scotland, and only son of that beautiful, but erratic, queen 
known in history as Mary, Queen of Scots, whom, in spite 
of her hideous crimes, "the world has persisted in loving 
instead of Elizabeth." 

The story of James I. and his forbears will be Hghtly 
touched on here, for the reason that they properly belong 
to the story of the Scottish sovereigns, which is supposed 
to follow this compilation. 

James I. has come down to us more as a disgusting 
joke than as a real king. He was an eminent scholar, and 

65 



a C|jow0anti f ear0 mitb Mnmltv* 

was vainly proud of his learning. A wit of the time re- 
ferred to him as, "The wisest fool in Christendom." He 
wrote a number of books, one of the most notable being on 
the subject of Witchcraft, in which he devoutly believed. 
The Duke of Buckingham, James' court favorite, was in 
the habit of referring to the king as, "His So'Wship" and 
Dickens thought the title was aptly applied. 

This king quarreled with, and cajoled, his parliaments, 
and was a real master of a certain kind of sarcasm. Once 
when a parliamentary committee waited on the king to 
protest against some high-handed act, James received them 
with an affluence of mock courtesy, and loudly called to an 
attendant, ''Fetch stools for the Ambassadors!^' 

If James I. had been the strong man that Henry VIII. 
was, he would have been as absolute; but being only a 
weak coward, he resorted to bribery, and his court became 
shamelessly venal. 

Yet it was under James I. that our authorized translation 
of the Holy Scriptures was made. The real credit for 
this is not due to James, however, but rather to the fag-end 
of the Elizabethan scholars; for James' reign was dis- 
tinctively the reaction after the vigor of the reign of 
Elizabeth. 

It was under this James that America's first successful 
colony was planted, and named Jamestown in honor of the 
king, and a few years later the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. 

Sir Walter Scott's "Fortunes of Nigel" gives us a good 
insight into the character of James I., and is more merciful 
to his memory than any history I have seen. 

66 



I CI)ciii0anD ^eat0 mith Mmmltp. 



James died, it is said of gluttony, in the year 1 625, 
and was succeeded by his son, "Baby Charles," as he was 
fondly called by the doting father. A daughter of James I. 
married the Duke of Brunswick, a fact I mention here to 
make clear later on the right of the House of Hanover; 
for it was a daughter of this daughter, who, by the Act 
of Settlement, seventy years after James' death, was de- 
clared the rightful heir to the throne after the failure of 
the House of Stuart. 

CHARLES I. 

Charles I. was crowned King of England in 1625. He 
has often been referred to as "The Blessed Martyr"; but 
it is not so much the fashion now as it was a century ago, 
and, as time rolls on, history will doubtless fix him with 
his proper appellation of Unspeaffable Tyrant. The his- 
torian Green began the study of English History as a boy, 
with undoubting faith in the old loyalist idea that Charles 
was indeed a martyr, and that those who were responsible 
for his death were more than murderers, they were murderers 
of the Lord's Anointed! But as the true character of 
Charles dawned upon the young student, he completely re- 
versed himself; and regardless of the social ostracism he 
suffered, he became the author of Green's History of the 
English People, probably the most exact portrayal of 
England's great past, from the standpoint of the common 
people, that has ever been written. 

The lull of stagnation that followed the vigor of Eliza- 
beth's reign gave place, under Charles L, to another 
thought-wave, which took the form of religious enthusiasm, 

67 



and produced Oliver Cromwell, the most powerful per- 
sonality in all English history. Charles was a tyrant, pure 
and simple, though, it must be admitted, not a very cruel 
one; for religious bigotry is the most cruel of all forms of 
bigotry, and Charles was a personal tyrant. His belief in 
the Divine Right of Kings was almost sublime. His creed 
was: "The king can do no wrong: he is God's vice-regent 
on earth: he is to rule, and the people are to obey without 
question." 

For twenty-four years there was strife between the king 
and the Parliament, and this strife culminated in civil war, 
and all this time the religious enthusiasts grew stronger and 
stronger. And now it was that Oliver Cromwell came 
forward like a lion rousing from his sleep, and his genius 
as an organizer soon made him, not only the people's un- 
questioned leader, but the idol of the nation as well. 

In January, 1 649, Charles was tried for treason, con- 
demned and executed; but the unfair means adopted to 
secure his conviction has given his execution the name of 
murder. There was quite a large party in Parliament that 
stood aghast at the idea of regicide, and the Cromwell party, 
being in doubt as to how the vote would stand, ordered 
Colonel Pride, with thirty soldiers, to post himself at the 
entrance of the House of Commons, with a list of members 
known to be friendly to the king, and to arrest these mem- 
bers as they came out of the House. This was done; and 
when a member would ask by what authority the arrest was 
made. Colonel Pride's laconic answer was: "By the 
authority of the Sword!" This incident is known in history 
as "Pride's Purge." 

68 



a CijousanD ^ear0 Ulitb Hopaltp. 

Charles' family fled to the continent, and it was not till 
the year 1 660, after the death of the great Oliver, that 
his eldest son was recalled. This period, from 1 649 to 
I 660, is known by the English people, as The Interregnum, 
but by all the rest of the world, as The Da'^s of the 
Commomveallh; for the Enghsh people, as a nation, have 
never recognized the Commonwealth, but refer to the year 
1660 as the twelfth year of the reign of Charles II., usually 
written, J 2 Car., II. 

During the years of the Commonwealth, or the Inter- 
regnum, as you may choose to call the period, 

OLIVER CROMWELL 

Was supreme in England, as the Protector. 

Reinforced by that terrible brigade of soldiers known 
in history as Oliver's Ironsides, no power on earth could 
withstand him. The Old Guard of Napoleon, and the 
Tenth Legion of Csesar have furnished matter for the poet 
and the orator, till they are on the Hps of almost every 
schoolboy; but, as a fighting machine, Oliver's Ironsides 
have never been equaled in all the annals of war. They 
went into battle singing Psalms, and bore down all opposi- 
tion, no matter what the odds against them. They were 
never once defeated. 

Cromwell did many cruel acts, and his hands were 
deep dyed in the blood of his country, but he made England 
more respected and feared abroad than she had been for 
a century before his time, or a century after. He swept 
the seas clear of pirates, and "stopped the persecuting fires 
of Rome." 

69 



a C|)ou0anD feats With Hopaltp* 



The torrents of abuse that early historians, who wrote 
from the standpoint of royalty, have heaped upon the head 
of Cromwell, have caused many well-informed people to 
regard him as a common, ignorant boor, with no virtue, save 
brute courage. This is altogether erroneous. Cromwell 
was of noble family. On his father's side, he was 
descended from the family of Lord Thomas Cromwell, 
Prime Minister under Henry VIII., while his mother was 
a scion of the royal House of Stuart, and a relative of 
Charles I. He was a member of the Parliament that took 
up the gage of battle when it was thrown down by Charles, 
and he was quite able to write letters in the Latin language. 

The Cromwell party cropped their hair close, and for 
this reason were contemptuously called ''Roundheads " 
while the party of the royalists, in the same spirit of deri- 
sion, were called ''Cavaliers,^' from their pompous military 
mien. So the fight between the Roundheads and Cavaliers 
drave on, with steady success to the Romidheads, till the 
year 1658, when the Protector died, and his party melted 
away like snow before the sun of springtime. 

Before Cromwell died, he designated his son Richard 
as his successor as Lord Protector; but what is gotten by 
violence must be maintained by violence, and Richard was 
altogether unable to cope with the turning tide, and resigned 
his office within five months; and the army, under General 
Monk, dictated the policy of the Commonwealth until the 
recall of the "rightful" king, who had been in banishment 
since the death of his father io I 649. 

Sir Walter Scott's "Woodstock," though written from the 
viewpoint of a partisan cavalier, gives a vivid picture of the 

70 



a CI)ou0anQ ^mm Mith 



troublous days of the Interregnum. The pride and poverty 
of old Sir Henry Lee is terribly suggestive to us who have 
seen his exact prototype in the survivors of our Southern 
ante-bellum aristocracy. From the standpoint of utility, 
altogether impracticable, but so really great that there is no 
dislodgment, but — death. 

CHARLES IL 

In the year 1 660, the eldest son of Charles I. was re- 
called from banishment, and seated on the throne of the 
House of Stuart. Puritanism passed with Cromwell and 
the Commonwealth, and under Charles II. the reaction was 
sharp and frightful. Profligacy became honorable. Court 
ladies vied with each other in obscenity; chastity was 
flouted as the affectation of a prude; female virtue became 
a reproach, instead of a grace; London, loosed from the 
trammels of Puritanism, rushed into Sodom and Gomorrah. 
The kmg himself led the pace, and Ke was not wanting in 
followers. 

It was at this time the immortal Milton wrote his "Para- 
dise Lost," and the name he gave the great epic was sug- 
gested by the terrible fall of the English people from the 
religion of the Puritans to the unspeakable profligacy of 
Charles' court. It was also at this time that John Bunyan, 
while a prisoner in Bedford jail, for conscience' sake, wrote 
his "Pilgrim's Progress" ; for v^^ith all the shameless wicked- 
ness of Charles' reign, there were stringent laws against 
worshipping God except by the ritual of the established 
Church of England, and for this offence Bunyan was im- 
prisoned. It was this intolerance towards the religion of 

71 



a C^ou0ant8 gears mith Eopaltp* 

the Puritans that induced the tremendous emigration from 
England to America during the reign of Charles 11. 

Most historians describe Charles II. as a good-natured, 
easy-going king, with no morals at all, and too indolent to 
be a menace to the liberties of his people; but Green gives 
him the character of being able and crafty, only biding his 
time to become as absolute as his cousin, Louis XIV. of 
France, whose pensioner he was to the day of his death. 

On Charles' recall from banishment, he proclaimed a 
general amnesty, but he did not respect it; which reminds 
us of Mr. Dickens' biting sarcasm, when he remarked that 
the breaking of promises was the distinguishing characteristic 
of the House of Stuart. Charles persecuted ruthlessly, and 
even made war on the dead. The bones of the great Crom- 
well were torn from their resting place, and hanged in 
chains, by men who did not dare to look into Cromwell's 
living face. 

The Great Plague, followed by the Great Fire of 
London, are notable events of this reign, and to a certain 
class of readers their history has a fascination because of 
the very horror of the scenes; but to most healthy minds 
the more interesting part of the history of Charles II. is his 
romantic escape from England after his disastrous defeat at 
Worcester, in 1 65 1 , and this incident is made the climax 
of Scott's great novel, "Woodstock," referred to above. 

In the year 1685 Charles II. died without legitimate 
issue, and was succeeded by his brother, 

JAMES II. 

James had enjoyed the titles of Duke of York, and Duke 
of Albany, and it was for him that our great state and city 

72 



a C|)ou0anD ^ear0 With iRo^altp* 

of New York were named, — as was, also, the city of 
Albany, the capital of that state. 

Of all the bad lot of the House of Stuart, James IL 
was the worst. He possessed the vices of his race, with- 
out any offsetting virtue, and in him despotism developed 
itself in a form unmitigated by any mildness or weakness 
of temper. His career was short, but bloody. It was 
under this king that the infamous Judge Jeffreys flourished, 
whose very name has become a synonym of judicial 
ferocity. 

Since the reign of Mary Tudor, England had been in- 
tensely Protestant, and James II. was a bigoted Roman 
Catholic. He demanded of his ParHament that the Test 
Act be repealed, and on its being refused, he dispensed with 
the law. He defiantly set aside the ancient constitutions of 
England, and refused to be advised to moderation, even by 
the Pope of Rome. In the year 1 688 matters arrived at 
such a pass that the English people rose in their might and 
expelled James from the throne, and called his daughter 
Mary, with her husband, William Henry, Prince of 
Orange, Stadtholder of Holland, jointly to reign over 
England ; while James fled to the court of Louis XIV. of 
France, and for a number of years made war on England 
from that base. This war was virtually closed by James' 
defeat at the battle of Boyne. 

A cruel despot and religious tyrant, his private life was 
such as we expect of a man with no religious restraint of 
any kind. Yet attempts have been made to excuse his vile 
conduct by comparing him with David of Old, as being 
indeed a great sinner, but also a great repenter. But 

73 



3 Ci)oi!0ants f eat0 mitb Hopaltp* 



Macaulay has pointed out that as often as he repented, he 
forthwith repented of his repentance. After shamelessly 
neglecting his queen and spending days together with his 
mistress, he would go to the queen in deep contrition, and in 
her presence beat himself over the shoulders with a stick till 
the blood ran down to the ground; then the very next v/eek 
he would sneak back, like a dog returning to his vomit. 

When James was fleeing from England, alarmed at the 
wrath of his subjects, he was captured on the Kentish coast 
by some poor fishermen, who knew only from his skulking 
demeanor that he was some refugee, and they presuming him 
to be a culprit, fleeing from justice, treated him rather 
harshly. In answer to his imperative demands that they 
release him, the fishermen called him "hatchet face." This 
was an insult that he never forgave. In after years, when 
he, waiting at Saint Germain for a reaction to restore him 
to the throne, would, at times of deep religious fervor, state 
to his attendants that he had made up his mind to forgive 
all his enemies, except those fishermen that called him 
"hatchet face." But the expected reaction never came, 
and in the year \ 70 1 James died at Saint Germain in 
France. 

The joint sovereigns that succeeded James II. were 

WILLIAM AND MARY 

The name of this joiDt reign is preserved familiarly to 
us in the name of an honored seat of learning in our State 
of Virginia. Mary died of smallpox in the year 1 694, 
and the love of her people was shown by an affluence of 
sorrow seldom exhibited by the English nation. 

After Mary's death, her husband reigned alone, as 

74 



a C|)ou0anD f eat0 With IRopaltp* 



WILLIAM III. 

The reign of William and Mary, and that of William 
III., taken together, form the period of the House of 
Nassau, and is a break in the Stuart line. 

During the reign of WiUiam III., in a time of great 
financial distress, a Scotchman named WilHam Patterson 
came forward with the first idea of the Bank of England; 
and from this beginning the colossal banking business of the 
world has grown. It was also in this reign that the House 
of Commons gained the ascendency which it has held with 
ever-increasing power and authority to the present day. 

William III. was probably the greatest statesman, and 
assuredly the greatest diplomat, that ever sat on the throne 
of England; but his best energies were sadly distracted 
from home affairs by his almost constant wars with France. 

There were no children of William and Mary's mar- 
riage, and as the children of the Princess Anne, Mary's 
sister (and, by the way, Anne was the mother of eighteen 
children), all died in childhood, and Anne being the heir 
apparent to the throne, the question of the succession became 
all-important; so there was passed an Act of Parliament, 
known in history as the Act of Settlement, by the terms of 
which the succession was fixed, after Anne, on the Electress 
Sophia of Hanover, and her heirs "Zjeing Protestant"; for 
the Electress, as we have seen, was the granddaughter of 
King James I. 

William III. died in the year 1 702, and the crown 
passed, by the terms of the Act of Settlement, to Mary's 
sister, 

75 



^ C!)ou0anCs ^ears Witl^ Eogaltg. 



ANNE. 

This queen was of rather feeble intellect, and her hus- 
band. Prince George, brother of the King of Denmark, 
was an insufferable dolt. He was nicknamed "£sf il 
Possible," from the fact that this was his invariable exclama- 
tion at everything said in his presence, no matter how com- 
monplace. WilHam always had the greatest contempt for 
him, and he is quoted by Macaulay as saying: "I have 
tried Prince George drunk, and I have tried him sober, and 
there is nothing in him." 

But for all that, Anne's reign was a glorious one for 
England. The Duke of Marlboro was the queen's advisor, 
and he was both a great statesman, and a great general. 
Under his administration the French were whipped off the 
seas, and beaten at every turn on land; and England rose 
to the rank of first among European States. 

It was during this, and the first decade of the succeeding 
reign, that Rev. Isaac Watts, the sweetest singer of 
devotional melody since Hebrew David, composed and pub- 
lished the beautiful and inspiring hymns that we sing in our 
churches to this day. 

Anne is the last sovereign in England that has presumed 
to veto an Act of ParHament; that ancient prerogative of 
the crown was absorbed by the ever-increasing majesty of 
the people; and in this particular the sovereign of Great 
Britain is less powerful than the president of the United 
States. 

Under Queen Anne the watchword of English trade was 
Thrift, and the American colonies grew and prospered ; and 
on her death, in the year 1714, the verdict of the world 

76 



a Ctiou0anD gears mith Wiomltv* 



was that she had made a great queen, and that her reign 
had been a blessing to the Enghsh race. Anne was the 
last of the House of Stuart. 

The Electress Sophia having died in the year 1713, her 
eldest son, George Louis, then a man fifty-four years of 
age, was called to the throne of England as 

GEORGE I. 

This king was the first of the House of Hanover, and 
this royal house holds the sceptre of England to the present 
day. 

This George was a German in all his tastes and 
sympathies. His preference for all things German placed 
a great gulf between him and his subjects, and their 
antipathy was mutual. Other things contributed to make 
George I. a failure as an English king: twenty years before 
his accession to the English throne, his duchess was caught 
in a love intrigue, and divorced, and from that day to the 
day of her death, more than thirty years, she was a virtual 
prisoner; for the duchess, on being overtaken in her fault, 
and seeing her lover slain, boldly asserted that her husband 
frittered away his time with his mistresses, and that the time 
would come when that code of morals which assumed that 
conjugal infidelity was the privilege of the male sex alone 
would be exploded. 

This bold stand did not inure to the personal benefit of 
the duchess at the time, but it raised a point that has kept 
people thinking to the present day. And just between you 
and me, there have been great moral reforms in the history 
of the world that were slower a-growing than this doctrine 
preached by poor, disgraced Sophia Dorothea. 

77 



a C!)Qii0anli gear0 With IRopIt^* 

This scandal hung about the neck of the king, probably 
with more sinister effect than if he had been the disgraced 
party; for his brutal harshness to the fallen duchess was 
resented in the king, though those who resented it were as 
far from forgiving the poor lady as the king himself was. 
Strange inconsistency; but we are all that way. Then the 
disgraceful quarrel between the king and his son, the Prince 
of Wales, gave great scandal to the court and embittered 
George's life. 

George I. died in the year 1 727, just a year after the 
death of the imprisoned duchess, while on a visit to his 
native land, of which he was also the nominal ruler. 

This George has been compared with William III., in 
that both were foreigners, and each called from his foreign 
possession to rule over England; but the historian that 
makes this comparison admits that it is comparing an 
intellectually great man with an intellectually small one; 
which admission quite robs George I. of what would other- 
wise be a high compliment. 

George I. was quietly succeeded by his son, George 
Augustus, known as 

GEORGE II. 

Ridpath says that George II. was like his father in his 
detestation of all things EngHsh, but was possessed of less 
ability than George I. The reign of George II. would 
have come down to us without a feature to redeem it from 
infamy had not his queen, Wilhelmena Caroline, fondly 
remembered as "Caroline the Beloved," shed a glory about 
the court of this king, that has done much to dispel the 
gloom created by her mean-spirited lord, for, — 

78 



^ C{)ou0anti gears; Mill) Hopaltp, 



"As unto the bow the cord is. 
So unto the man is woman." 

It was this good, kind queen that is represented as coming 
to the assistance of Jeannie Deans, in Scott's admirable 
novel, "The Heart of Midlothian." 

During this reign the Jacobites, the supporters of the 
Catholic descendants of James II., as against the House of 
Hanover, gave the government much trouble, and in the 
year 1 745, Charles Edward, a grandson of James, landed 
in Scotland, and the Highlanders rose and flocked to his 
standard in great numbers. He gained considerable head- 
way at first; but in 1746, he was defeated in the famous 
battle of Culloden by the Duke of Cumberland, the king's 
brother, and Charles Edward made his escape by aid of 
the celebrated Flora McDonald. 

Charles Edward is known in history as the Young 
Pretender; and he is the "Charlie" referred to in the old 
Jacobite songs that we, who are of Scotch descent, had 
sung to us in childhood by our grandmothers, notably: 

"Over the water, over the sea, 

Over the water to Charlie; 
Charlie loves good ale and wine, 

Charlie loves good brandy, 
Charlie loves a pretty girl, 

As sweet as sugar-candy." 

It is true, this old song was made and published by the 
ultra Cavaliers during the banishment of Charles II., but 
it never came into popularity till it was used as a Jacobite 
song as referring to the Young Pretender. Mr. Dickens 
said that of all the history and influence of the House of 
Stuart, there is nothing left to posterity so delightful as these 
old Jacobite songs. 

79 



^ Cftou0anD ^eats; With Eopaltp* 



Under King George II., England was fortunate in 
having at the head of affairs Sir Robert Walpole as Prime 
Minister, a statesman of great abihty, and who was equal 
to the task of steering the Ship of State clear of the multi- 
tude of dangerous breakers, into which the king's wilful 
disregard of duty constantly threatened to drive her. But 
historians credit Queen Caroline with influencing the king 
to retain this great minister. 

George II. was harsh and unfatherly to his son, 
Frederick, the Prince of Wales, as if he had not seen the 
evil of this unnatural family strife in his own youth. And 
Ridpath says that even Caroline was unkind to Frederick; 
but this is so out of joint with Caroline's character and 
nature, I choose to believe this seeming dislike was assumed, 
to appease the king's ungovernable temper. 

It was during this reign that our great state of Georgia 
was colonized, and named in honor of the king. It was 
also in this reign that the English courts of law discarded 
the Latin language for English, — a decided gain, both in 
nationality and common sense. 

Frederick, the Prince of Wales, — that prince for whom 
the city of Fredericksburg, Va., and Frederick, Md., were 
named, died before his father did. So when George II. 
died in the year I 760, the son of Frederick, a grandson 
of George II., succeeded to the throne, as 

GEORGE III. 

This obstinate king has been held up to the world as a 
man not to be swerved from duty by any sort of consid- 



a C!)ou$anD gears Witb Hopaltp, 



eration. But George III. did England more harm than 
Henry VIII.; more harm than Mary Tudor, or James II. 
His foolish obstinacy lost to England the American colonies. 
His mother was a strong-minded, ambitious woman, who 
was disappointed herself of being Queen of England, and 
the whole of her enormous power over her son was exerted 
to assist him to thwart the will of the people. As the king 
dismissed adviser after adviser and minister after minister, 
his mother would exult, and exclaim with great satisfaction, 
"Now, indeed, is my son a king!" 

There were stirring times in this reign, and many im- 
portant events occurred, among them the American Revo- 
lution, the French Revolution, the rise, spectacular career, 
and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte; and the period was 
peculiarly fecund of great statesmen, great generals, and 
great churchmen. Pitt, Fox, Lord North, Nelson, Well- 
ington, were products of this reign, as was also, John 
Wesley, whose life work is sufficient to impart lustre to any 
age. 

In a quite different class, one other man lived during this 
reign, whose name is as nearly immortal as the world has 
produced in modern times. I refer to the Scottish bard, 
Robert Burns. The statesmanship of Pitt, Fox, and North 
was fitted only for the times; the heroism of Nelson and 
Wellington was great only because it was successful; and 
all these will be outshone by greater successes in the future. 
But Burns' music is absolutely inimitable, and will rouse 
the souls of men as long as there is a human heart in 
Caledonia, or blood in the veins of a descendant of one, 
the world over. The Scotchman that does not love Burns 
is not to be trusted. 

81 



a C!)ousanD ^ears mith Eopaltp* 



No real history of any man or event can be written till 
at least one century has elapsed after the event to be 
written of, for the reason that all men are partisans, whether 
they themselves know it or not. We Americans regard 
the War of the Revolution as the greatest event of the age. 
It was great, for with the pangs of that struggle was born 
a mighty nation. But common modesty suggests that we 
pause to remember that during that great war, we had more 
hearty sympathizers in England than we had enemies in 
America, and that impartial history will doubtless note the 
fact. 

The true historian is not permitted to dream of the 
future; but this story is not a history proper, and I claim 
the freedom of prediction, and the indulgence of sentiment; 
and in the exercise of that freedom, I pause to predict 
that the future historian writing a thousand years hence will 
record something like this: 

"The last four decades of the eighteenth century was 
covered by the foolish and obstinate reign of the third 
George of the Hanoverian dynasty, who 'lingered super- 
fluous on the stage' till the year 1820; but the latter half 
of this reign was a virtual regency, for the king was hope- 
lessly demented. 

"But there were great and lasting deeds belonging to 
this reign, independent of the king, and often in his despite, 
that have preserved the period from oblivion. It was at 
this time that the poet Burns wrote 'Tam O'Shanter': it 
was at this time that Bishop Heber wrote that immortal 
evangelizing hymn, 'From Greenland's Icy Mountains': it 
was during this reign that the English colonies in America 

82 



a Ci)ou0anD ^ear0 mitb Eopaltp* 



revolted from the senseless tyranny of the king, and by an 
act of federation formed a republic known as The United 
States of America, which as the cradle of liberty drew the 
oppressed of all nations unto it. From the first this republic 
enjoyed phenomenal prosperity; though its progress was 
hindered for a time by a class of criminals who ridiculously 
styled themselves the 'American Aristocracy of Wealth.' 
This American republic, after repudiating a few anarchists 
parading in the garb of Socialists, became the leader in that 
Socialistic propaganda that has permeated the whole world, 
and brought such sweet harmony out of the jarring discord 
of former times." 

George III. died in the year 1 820, after a reign of sixty 
years, and was succeeded by his son, George Augustus 
Frederick, as 

GEORGE IV. 

As stated above these recent sovereigns can have no real 
history, and it is doubtful if I should add interest to my 
story by dwelling upon the events of their reigns, hence 
it is only to fill in the list of kings that I give them brief 
mention here. Besides, if I were to follow the time- 
honored maxim, "Speak fair, young master, or speak not 
at all," I should be obliged to utter the name of George 
IV. in a whisper; for even the Encyclopedia Britannica 
can not find in its great English heart a single good thing 
to say about this king, except that in his youth he was very 
handsome in person. 

This George came to the throne at the age of fifty-eight, 
a worn-out debauchee, but he had been regent for nine 

83 



a C|)ou0anD ^ears Witfi Eopaltp* 



years prior to his father's death. A nauseating scandal 
between George and his wife had thoroughly disgusted the 
English people, and on his accession as king, the country 
was in the humor to strip the sovereign of every vestige of 
power that had been gained by the stubborn rule of George 
III., and the ten years of George IV.'s reign sufficed for 
that purpose. 

This reign covered the third decade of the nineteenth 
century, the palmiest days of Sir Walter Scott; and Mr. 
Scott was master of ceremonies at a reception given the 
king by the city of Edinburgh when George visited the 
ancient capital of Scotland. 

As sorry a figure as George IV. made as an English 
king, there were some really great reforms during his short 
reign. Prominent among them was the removal of the legal 
disabilities of Roman Catholics, by which they had been 
unjustly burdened since the reign of Charles II., as was also 
Sir Robert Peele's revisal and "humanizing" of the criminal 
code. Up to this time, there were so many capital offences 
in the criminal code, which the Enghsh nation, out of in- 
ordinate conservatism, had from time out of mind refused 
to amend, the judges had come, from sheer necessity, to 
commute the sentences of four-fifth of all the criminals 
convicted in the courts. 

During this reign England acquired large additions of 
territory in the Far East by the conquest of Burmah; and 
this reign marks that point in English history at v/hich the 
personality of the crowned head ceased to be a controlling 
factor in the affairs of Great Britain. 

In the year 1830, George IV. died without legitimate 
issue, and his eldest living brother, William, Duke of 
Clarence, was crowned King of England, with the title of 

84 



^ C!)ou$anD ^eat0 mUb Eopaltp* 



WILLIAM IV. 

This king was bred to the sea, he being a younger son, 
and with only remote prospects of ever coming to be Eng- 
land's sovereign; but death made path for his promotion, 
little expected by William, or by the English people. 
William IV. was a soldier of considerable ability, but he 
was altogether wanting in "kingcraft." 

As Queen Anne was the last sovereign to exercise the 
prerogative of the veto, so William IV. was the last to 
attempt to impose an unpopular ministry on the English 
people. But he had the wit to coerce an obstreperous 
House of Lords, by the threat to "create" new lords enough 
to form a majority. The king's order for this expedient 
is still considered as the first effective thrust that was to 
destroy the rotten borough system of the Enghsh Parlia- 
ment. It is a short order, and I give it in full: 

"The king grants permission to Earl Gray, and his 
Chancellor, Lord Brougham, to create such a number of 
peers as will be sufficient to insure the passing of the 
Reform Bill, first calling up Peers' eldest sons. — William 
R. 

Windsor Castle, May 1 7th, 1832." 

The lords promptly passed the Reform Bill without the 
aid of the new peers; and many lawmakers believe to this 
day that no more salutary law was ever enacted by the 
English Parliament. 

William IV. died in the year 1837, and was succeeded 
by his niece, the Princess Alexandria Victoria, daughter of 
Edward, Duke of Kent, who was the fourth son of George 

85 



a Cf)ousanEs geat0 mith Hopaltp* 

III. ; for a strange fatality seems to have overtaken the 
male heirs of the House of Hanover, much like the failure 
of the male Tudor line after Henry VIII. The plain 
truth is, the curse of God had fallen on the male line of 
both these royal houses, because of their notorious contempt 
for conjugal fidelity. 

A happy era dawned for England the day the successor 
of William IV. was crowned queen, as 

VICTORIA. 

This great and good queen reigned sixty-four years, the 
longest reign in all English history, and, I believe, the most 
beneficent for the human race. Her long reign was an era 
of invention, and nearly all the phenomena of nature were 
solved by man. The application of steam as a motive 
power: the lightning of the sky harnessed and made to 
obey the will of man: the manufacture and use of the high 
explosives, brought into the reach of man powers and forces 
undreamed of before in the history of the world. All these, 
and many others, were the discoveries of the Victorian 
reign. 

This queen began her reign at the age of eighteen, and 
at the time of her death in 1 90 1, she was eighty-two years 
old. 

Victoria married her cousin. Prince Albert of Saxe- 
Coburg, whose full name was Francis Charles Augustus 
Albert Emmanuel, and of this union there were born fifteen 
children, though a number of them died in infancy. 

Prince Albert was distinctively a man of practical 
affairs, and the conception of the idea of International 

86 



a CbousantJ f ear0 With Hopaltp, 

Expositions is due to his practical mind. Doubtless history 
will accord this prince a high place among the benefactors 
of England; but at this date, it is true he is better known 
by the name of our regulation dress-coat, than by any of 
the great things he did for England. Prince Albert died 
of typhoid fever in 1 86 1 , the queen surviving him just 
forty years. 

Upon the death of Victoria, in 1901, her son, the 
Prince of Wales, succeeded her as 

EDWARD VII. 

To quote the historian Ridpath, "We have now arrived 
at a point where perspective ceases for want of distance." 
The acts and character of this sovereign are too well re- 
membered to require a single line in this story. The events 
of his nine years' reign are as the daily news read in the 
morning papers. 

Edward VII. died in 1910, and was succeeded by his 
son, as 

GEORGE V. 

This king is the present sovereign of Great Britain. 

Since the accession of the House of Hanover the kingly 
office in England had become merely titular. The House 
of Commons having forged to the front in the days of 
William III., has never lost its prestige, but, on the contrary, 
it has steadily gained in ascendency and grown in stability, 

87 



a C|)ou0anD gear0 mitb Eopaltp* 

till now, that branch of the government names the Prime 
Minister, who is the real ruler of the English nation. 

Once when Gladstone was Victoria's prime minister, he 
presented a bill for the queen's signature, which was not to 
her liking, and she refused her assent. The old minister 
argued the point with the queen, and explained the benefits 
that were expected to accrue to the people from the bill; 
but faihng to convince her, he quietly informed her that she 
must sign it. The independence of the queen was offended 
at the word "must," and she with queenly dignity informed 
Mr. Gladstone that he was addressing the Queen of 
England. The minister assented and informed her that he 
was the English People. That was enough: the bill re- 
ceived the queen's signature. 

With the exception of a part of the reign of George III., 
whose obstinate folly, coupled with a sycophant ministry, 
lost to England the rich American colonies, the will of the 
English people has not been seriously resisted by any 
sovereign of the House of Hanover. Under the wise rule 
of the House of Commons the government of Great Britain 
has withstood shock after shock without a tremor in the 
body politic. Wave after wave broke over her rock- 
ribbed sides during the years of the Napoleonic wars; and 
much of the time nearly all Europe, as well as young 
America, was in league against her; but Great Britain 
remains to-day easily the First World Power. 

Having completed my story, I can not do better than to 
close with the pregnant lines of Ridpath, the historian: 

88 



a Ci)ou0anD geat0 mitb Eopaltp* 



"England abides. The Island-built empire is unshaken 
by the storm." 

"The lion has laid his magnificent head 
Between his paws ; but he is not dead ! 
The Ocean of Atlas rolls and swells, 
The tide is high and the sea-god sprawls 
Against the wave-worn chalky walls. 
The sailors have made the anchors fast. 
The crooked flukes are cinder the sea. 
The moving deep 'neath billowy blasts 
That tosses the sea-mew, surges past — 
Britannia, what cares she? 
The poet's dust with the dust of the king 

Is shrined in the Abbey wall, 
And the Church of Elizabeth spreads her wing 
Above the dome, while the singers sing. 

In the famous Chapel of Paul." 



89 



CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX 



CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX 



CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX 



SAXON KINGS: 

Edward the Elder 901 to 925 

Athelstane 925 " 940 

Edmund (the Boy King) 940 " 946 

Edred ( ) 946 " 955 

Edwy the Fair (Boy King) 955 " 958 

Edgar (the Boy King) 958 " 975 

Edward, the Martyr 975 " 978 

Ethelred, the Unready 978 " 1016 

Edmund Ironsides 1016 " 1016 

DANISH KINGS: 

Canute, the Dane 1016 to 1035 

Harold Harefoot 1035 " 1040 

Hardi Canute 1040 " 1043 

SAXON KINGS: 

Edward, the Confessor 1043 to 1066 

Harold, Last Saxon King 1066 " 1066 

NORMAN KINGS: 

William I., Conqueror 1066 to 1687 

William II., Rufus 1087 " 1099 

Henry 1 1099 " 1135 

Stephen 1135 " 1154 

PLANT AGENETS: 

Henry II 1154 to 1189 

Richard I., Coeur de Leon 1189 ** 1199 

John (Lackland) 1199 " 1216 

Henry III 1216 " 1272 

Edward 1 1272 " 1307 

Edward II 1307 •* 1327 

Edward III 1327 " 1377 

Richard II 1377 " 1399 

Henry IV. (Lancaster) 1399 " 1413 

Henry V. (Lancaster) 1413 " 1422 

Henry VI. (Lancaster) 1422 " 1462 

Edward IV. (York) 1462 " 1483 

Edward V. (York) 1483 " 1483 

Richard III. (York) 1483 " 1485 

93 



PAGE 

5 
6 

7 
7 
7 
7 
7 



9 
10 
10 



10 
12 



12 
13 
14 
17 



20 
22 
24 
26 
27 
30 
33 
36 
37 
36 
41 
44 
44 



CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX— Continued 

TUDORS : PAGE 

Henry VII.. 1485 to 1509 46 

Henry VIII 1509 " 1547 49 

Edward VI 1547 " 1553 56 

Mary Tudor 1553 " 1558 57 

Elizabeth 1558 " 1603 59 

STUARTS: 

James 1 1603 to 1625 65 

Charles 1 1625 " 1649 67 

COMMONWEALTH: 

Oliver Cromwell 1649 to 1658 69 

General Monk's Army 1658 " 1660 70 

STUARTS, Reinstated: 

Charles II 1660 to 1685 71 

James II 1685 " 1688 72 

NASSAU: 

William and Mary 1688 to 1694 74 

William III 1694 •' 1702 75 

STUART, Reinstated: 

Anne 1702 to 1714 76 

HANOVER: 

George I 1714 to 1727 77 

George II 1727 " 1760 78 

George III 1760 " 1820 80 

George IV 1820 " 1830 83 

William IV 1830 " 1837 85 

Victoria 1837 " 1901 86 

Edward VII....... 190! " 1910 87 

George V 1910 " 87 



94 



